We fact-check 5 of Trump’s false claims about NATO

WASHINGTON (CNN) — For a third consecutive presidential election campaign, former President Donald Trump has been increasingly uncertain about the military alliance called the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

Trump caused a transatlantic stir this weekend by claiming at a campaign rally on Saturday that he once told the president of a “major” NATO country that he would not protect the country if that country did not pay his “bills.” Russian aggression and will encourage Russia to “do whatever they want.”

Trump’s inflammatory statements contained a known false claim. His claim that NATO allies have allegedly failed to pay “invoices” is simply not true, as fact-checkers at CNN and other outlets have pointed out over the years.

And Trump has been making other false claims about spending by NATO and its members for years. Here are five of his claims verified.

NATO member spending

Trump has long claimed that many NATO members have not paid their “NATO bills,” “dues” or “fees,” that they “owe us a tremendous amount,” or that they owe NATO “billions” of dollars. .

Facts: All these claims of Trump are false. While most NATO members do not meet each member’s alliance goal of spending at least 2% of gross domestic product on defense, the 2% target is a “guideline” that does not create bills, debts or legal obligations if not met. In fact, the guidelines do not require payments to NATO or the United States at all. Instead, each country needs to spend on its own defense programs.

When Trump was president, the directive was couched in mild language that made it clear it was not a firm commitment. That version of the guidelines, drawn up at the NATO summit in Wales in 2014, stated that members who have not yet reached 2% “will aim to move towards the 2% guideline within a decade to meet their NATO capability objectives and fill. NATO capability gaps.” In other words, members that were less than 2% in 2014 did not even have to promise to reach the target in 2024, but had to try to achieve it by then.

NATO requires its members to make direct contributions to finance the organization’s operations. But there is no sign that members have stopped making those contributions, which make up a small portion of allies’ defense spending, and Trump made it clear that his debt speech referred to the 2% guideline.

Stephen Seideman, the Patterson Chair of International Affairs at Carleton University in Canada, said in an email Monday that the term “inaccurate” does not really cover Trump’s alleged defense of country club or tennis quotas.

“Money, as you and everyone knows, is not sent from member countries to the US or NATO (although there is a common fund that pays for buildings in Brussels and elsewhere, but it is not that much money and is not the focus of the 2% discussions. The commitment is that each country spends enough on its own armies: 2% of GDP, 20% of defense spending on equipment, so that the entire alliance is capable and can reliably deter Russia and whatever else the alliance agrees to,” Seidemann said.

By 2023, according to NATO projections, 11 of NATO’s 30 members had achieved the 2% target. This figure is more than three members in 2014.

Irvan Lagadek, a research professor at George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs and director of its Transatlantic Program, said in an email Monday that NATO members agreed to strong language regarding 2% in 2023, formally declaring that “we are making a permanent commitment. To invest at least 2% of our annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in defence.” “Logically for the first time allies have made a firm commitment to reach 2% (in fact, to reach at least 2%) rather than ‘trying to achieve it if possible,'” Lagdeck said.

However, he noted that even this strong statement “does not set a timeline” for reaching 2%. In any case, it will not create real debt to the US or NATO.

Spending by NATO members before Trump took office

As president, Trump claimed that spending by NATO members had been reduced “every year” until he took office in 2017. Sometimes he claimed that 15, 16 or 18 years had been reduced.

the facts: Trump’s claims that spending by NATO members was cut every year since he took office is false. Official NATO data shows that defense spending by non-US members increased in the two years of Trump’s presidency: 1.6% in 2015 and 3.0% in 2016. The increase came after NATO members recommitted to the 2% of GDP guideline. The 2014 summit followed Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region.

In each year of the Trump era, non-U.S. Members’ defense spending increases were larger than their increases in 2015 and 2016: the increase in 2017 was 5.9%; 4.3% in 2018; 3.6% in 2019 and 4.6% in 2020. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg gave Trump at least partial credit. But Trump is wrong when he claims he has reversed the downward trend.

“If you look at year-over-year data, the turn away from the nadir of European defense spending came in 2014, before Trump and clearly because of Crimea,” Laugadek said.

Sideman said that while he may be underestimating Trump’s impact because he generally dislikes Trump, “Putin deserves much of the credit for increasing defense spending in Europe.” He said: “After the economic crisis of 2008 and when countries started withdrawing from Afghanistan everyone was cutting their defense budgets, and that all changed with the annexation of Crimea.” And he argued that any escalation brought about by Trump was due less to his efforts to cajole allies than to concern that the U.S. It will fail to deliver on its commitments, despite what Trump has called “true hostility”. Connection and companionship”.

Under President Joe Biden, non-US NATO members increased their defense spending by 2.8% in 2021 and an estimated 2.0% in 2022, then by an estimated 8.3% in 2023.

That big increase in 2023 was “clearly a reaction to a full-blown invasion of Ukraine” in 2022, Lagadek said.

US participation in NATO spending

As president, Trump repeatedly claimed that before him, the United States was “paying 100% for NATO” or “close to 100%.”

Facts: Trump’s claims are false. Official NATO figures show that in 2016, the last year before Trump took office, US defense spending accounted for about 71% of total defense spending by NATO members, a large majority, but “100%” or “closer to 100%”. “No. And Trump’s claim is even more imprecise if he’s talking about direct contributions to NATO that cover NATO’s organizational costs and are based on each country’s national income; The US was responsible for about 22% of that contribution in 2016.

The US share of NATO’s total military spending has fallen to around 68% in 2023. And the US now accounts for about 16% of direct contributions to NATO, the same as Germany; Lagadec said the US share was reduced from 22% to “please Trump” and that it was a “favorable deal” as the US accounts for more than half of the alliance’s total GDP.

What previous presidents have told NATO members

As president, Trump has repeatedly claimed that before he pressured NATO members to increase their defense spending, American presidents had not even asked him to do so. He mentioned former President Barack Obama in his remarks at Saturday’s rally. Referring to NATO members whom Trump said he had pressured himself into, he continued: “And then I heard that they like Obama more. They like Obama more. Do you know why? Because he doesn’t do anything Didn’t ask for it.”

Facts: Trump’s claims are false. Obama and his predecessor, President George W. Bush, both repeatedly pressured other NATO members to spend more on defense, though their public language was less confrontational than Trump’s.

At a press conference in Belgium in 2014, Obama said: “If we have a collective defense, that means everyone has to contribute. And I’m concerned about defense spending cuts among some of our NATO partners, not all,” but there are many. is The trend lines are going down.” In a speech in Germany in 2016, Obama said: “Every NATO member should contribute fully to our common security – 2% of GDP – which is not always the case. And I’ll be honest, sometimes Europe is complacent in its own defense.” In a speech to the Parliament of Canada in 2016, he said: “As your ally and your friend, let me say that we will be safer when every NATO member, including Canada, contributes fully to our common security. .”

In a speech before a NATO summit in the Czech Republic in 2002, Bush said that each NATO member would have to make a military contribution to the alliance, and that “for some allies, this will require increased defense spending.” Bush and top administration officials continued to push for spending increases throughout the rest of his presidency. During his visit to Romania in 2008, Bush said: “Building a strong alliance in NATO also requires a strong defense capability in Europe. So at this summit I will encourage our European partners to increase their defense investments to support the operations of NATO and the European Union.” .

Cost of NATO headquarters

While criticizing NATO during and after his presidency, Trump has claimed that NATO spent $3 billion on building its headquarters in Belgium.

Facts: Trump’s $3 billion figure is nowhere near accurate. NATO told CNN in 2020 that the headquarters building was built for less than the approved budget of 1.178 billion euros, or about $1.27 billion at Monday’s exchange rate, certainly an expensive facility, but less than half of what Trump has claimed.