President Donald Trump thinks NATO should be expanded to include Middle Eastern nations. He even jokingly suggested a new name for the alliance: "NATOME" short for NATO-Middle East.
“What a beautiful name — NATOME,'' Trump said Thursday, pronouncing it “Nay-TOE-me."
Speaking to reporters at the White House during an unrelated event, Trump said the US had tamped down ISIS militants, eliminating their control of territory and killing ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
"We did Europe a big favor," he said.
"I think NATO should be expanded and we should include the Middle East, absolutely. ... Right now the burden is on us and that's not fair," Trump said.
Trump has been a critic of NATO, demanding that Europe pay more for its collective defense and make concessions to US interests on trade.
Trump said Thursday he also wants to see more NATO troops in the Middle East because problems there are international in scope. He said he spoke about NATO's role on Wednesday during a phone call with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg.
“I think he was actually excited about it. I actually had a name. NATO, right, and then you have ME, Middle East. They would call it NATOME," Trump said.
The White House said Trump "emphasized the value of NATO increasing its role in preventing conflict and preserving peace in the Middle East" in the call with Stoltenberg.
The US Ambassador to NATO, Kay Bailey Hutchison, said on Thursday the fight against ISIS is important to both the United States and its NATO allies.
"I think what the president is looking for is more of our allies working with us in Iraq," she told CNBC. "And that is something that our NATO Council will have to discuss and decide that we would do more."
