Thread by @JohnWHuber

Trump is absolutely right to call out @NATO allies for not meeting their 2% of GDP defence $ commitment

ESPECIALLY Germany

THREAD

Here is what Germany/Merkel signed up to at the 2014 NATO summit in Wales: nato.int/cps/ic/natohq/…

* Halt any decline in defence $
* Increase $ with GDP growth
* Get to 2% by 2024 at the latest

Virtually all lefty think tank and talking heads obfuscate these 3 key commitments

What have Germany and MERKEL done since then?

If you answered: *literally nothing*, congratulations

Since 2014 German defence spending is static at 1.2%: sipri.org/sites/default/…

And without rounding up, it's actually DECLINED in the last year to 1.12%: m.dw.com/en/german-defe…

Of course now MERKEL wants a do-over. Forget the Crimea/Russian threat, and the previous 2% commitment by 2024, can we "aim" to do 1.5% by 2025? mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/id…

🇩🇪OLD AND BUSTED: Firm commitment to halt spending declines & gradually increase defence spending by 75% (1.2% > 2.0%) by 2024

🇩🇪NEW HOTNESS: Decline in spending after Wales, plus a vague new "aim" to only increase defence spending by ~34% (1.12% > 1.5%) by 2025

#NATOSummit

This is completely unacceptable & as Germany effectively runs the entire EU, many other European nations follow its lead

In this case, from behind

Trump is right to call it out and shame on pundits for trying to spin this as anti-NATO & ignoring MERKEL breaking her word

/ENDS