Donald Trump has launched a fresh tirade against Natoand Germany during a speech to American steelworkers.
The US president called members of the alliance “delinquent”, attacked Germany for not paying enough towards the organisation and again questioned why the country was buying gas off Russia.
In remarks that will once more raise questions about his commitment to the treaty, he said: “The one thing I know about Nato, for sure, is it’s better for Europe than it is for us.”
Mr Trump was speaking during a visit to the United States Steel company in Granite City in Illinois.
In a rambling and occasionally incoherent hour-long speech – which also attacked the World Trade Organisation and former president Barack Obama - he said: “They said I was too nasty to Nato and too nice to Russia. Figure that one out, okay?
“And yet I’m the one who told Nato and Germany…’Why are you buying all of this gas and paying Russia billions and billions of dollars for your energy?’ I brought that up. But they said he was so nasty.
“Well, let me just tell you what happened with Nato. Last year they paid $44 billion more than they ever paid before. And, if you look at Nato, it was going this way, it was going down. Everybody was delinquent. They were…not everybody but almost everybody. The United States wasn’t. By the way, Germany pays one per cent [of its GDP] and we pay 4.3 per cent. You think that’s good?”
The outburst follows a similar attack earlier in the month when, during a Nato summit, Mr Trump declared that Germany was “totally controlled" by Russia.
"Germany, as far I’m concerned, is captive to Russia," he said, referring to a deal which will see it import up to 70 per cent of its energy from the east.
German chancellor Angela Merkel hit back following those remarks, saying: “I have experienced myself how a part of Germany was controlled by the Soviet Union. I am very happy that today we are united in freedom, the Federal Republic of Germany.”
