Germany is falling short of meeting its expected commitment to funding NATO, but the organization is bringing in billions of dollars more because of President Donald Trump, U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell told Newsmax TV.
Grenell appeared on Monday's "Newsmax Now" and was asked by host John Bachman if Germany is meeting its commitment to give 2% of its GDP to NATO.
Germany is "not meeting the commitment of 2% by 2024. That is a NATO commitment," Grenell said. "President Trump is enforcing and pushing and trying to tell countries that they should abide by the NATO commitments. If you want to be a good member of NATO, you need to be able to abide by the commitments made in 2014 that said every country should spend 2% of their GDP by 2024 on defense-related issues.
"So, we're really pushing the Germans. As the largest economy in Europe, they have a responsibility to meet the NATO commitments."
Trump came down hard on NATO during his 2016 presidential campaign and has continued to do so after he took office. The result, Grenell said, is a massive increase in NATO spending by its member countries.
"When you combine all of the European increases in defense with Canada, the other members of NATO, there's a $41 billion increase since 2016 on defense spending," said Grenell, noting the commitments in 2020 will amount to a $100 billion increase.
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