US President Donald Trump unleashed a diatribe against Germany on Saturday, saying Berlin owes Nato "vast sums of money" and must pay the United States more for security. His latest tweetstorm comes a day after he met German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Washington, where the two leaders showed little common ground over a host of thorny issues, including Nato and defense spending. "Germany owes vast sums of money to Nato & the United States must be paid more for the powerful, and very expensive, defense it provides to Germany!" Trump tweeted on Saturday morning.
He prefaced his statement by lashing out at the news media. "Despite what you have heard from the FAKE NEWS," he tweeted, "I had a GREAT meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel." That appeared to be far from the case on Friday, when the veteran German leader arrived hoping to reverse a chill in relations after Trump criticised her during his campaign last year, saying her decision to allow refugees into Germany was a "catastrophic mistake" and suggesting she was "ruining Germany."
During a joint news conference, Trump accused Germany of unfair trade practices and ripped into Washington's Nato allies, demanding they pay back "vast sums of money from past years." Merkel said Germany had committed to increasing its military spending to two percent of GDP, a target Nato member states formally agreed in 2014 to reach within 10 years.
Trump had made European defense spending an issue during his campaign, saying the United States - which spends just over three percent of its GDP on defense - carries too much of the financial burden for supporting Nato. However, at least one critic on Saturday pointed out that Nato members don't pay the United States for security, but contribute by spending on their own militaries.
"Sorry, Mr President, that's not how Nato works," tweeted Ivo Daalder, a former US ambassador to Nato. "This is not a financial transaction, where Nato countries pay the US to defend them. It is part of our treaty commitment." Trump has also worried US allies by criticising the military alliance as "obsolete" and failing to meet the challenge posed by Islamic terror groups.
Stark differences between President Donald Trump and German Chancellor Angela Merkel on everything from trade to immigration were in full view during an icy first meeting at the White House Friday. In a frequently awkward joint press conference, Trump and Merkel showed little common ground as they addressed a host of thorny issues including Nato, defense spending and free trade deals.
For most of the 30 minutes in the East Room, Merkel was stony-faced as Trump ripped into Washington's Nato allies for not paying for their "fair share" for transatlantic defense and demanded "fair and reciprocal trade" deals. The veteran German chancellor had arrived at a snowy White House hoping to reverse a chill in relations after Trump's incendiary election rhetoric. The visit began cordially, with the pair shaking hands at the entrance of the White House.
But later, sitting side-by-side in the Oval Office, Merkel's suggestion of another handshake went unheard or ignored by Trump - an awkward moment in what are usually highly scripted occasions. There was never going to be an easy rapport between the cautious German chancellor and impulsive US president. For years, Merkel - a trained physicist - had been president Barack Obama's closest international partner, with the two sharing a strong rapport and a similar deliberative approach.
Before coming to office in January, Trump had set the tone by calling Merkel's acceptance of refugees a "catastrophic mistake" and suggested she was "ruining Germany." In a similar vein, Merkel has sought to remind - some in the White House would say lecture - the real estate mogul about democratic values. Comments like that have prompted some of Trump's fiercest critics to declare Merkel the new "leader of the free world" - a moniker normally taken up by the occupant of the White House.
During the press conference, Merkel said "it's much, much better to talk to one another and not about one another, and I think our conversation proved this." But even the lighter moments were tinged with tension. Amid a furor over Trump's unfounded allegations that he was wiretapped by Obama, the new president cracked a joke referring to past revelations that Merkel's phone had also been bugged by his Democratic predecessor.
"As far as wiretapping, I guess, by this past administration, at least we have something in common perhaps," he said. Merkel appeared not to find the humour in what had been a major political scandal. And neither side tried to make small talk about Trump's own background. His family hails from Kallstadt, a tidy village nestled in south-west Germany's lush wine country. His grandparents left for America more than a century ago fleeing poverty and later, after a brief return, trouble with the law.
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