Idiot which trump called an amazing theatrical experience, maybe less amazing if American Idiot is now directed at you dont want to be an American Idiot jeanne moos, cnn, new york. And thanks for joining us. Ac 360 with anderson starts now. Its like the world gone crazy this morning. Trumps performance was beyond belief. Good evening, everyone. That quote is from a senior european diplomat talking to cnn about the nato summit in brussels and what the president said there today. Now, this diplomat we should point out is not alone. The western allies have been talking about it. The russians vietnam be talking about it. The world, and tonight so will we. Yet as shocking as it may be to our allies, as troubling as it is to some lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, it should not be surprising whether voters at the time gave it much credence. What happened today in brussels is what donald trump campaigned on. He said he was going to do this. Its the distilled essence of what he has believed
their fair share, they haven t been for years, and they owe the u.s. money. keeping him honest, as you ll see, that is simply not the case. it s not the way it works. it s not even close. it is, however, the way president trump believes it works, and he said so for years. number one, nato is obsolete. and number two, the people aren t paying their way. it s obsolete and we pay too much money. nato, we re going to have the people that aren t paying, they re going to start paying. it s obsolete. they were getting ripped in nato. they don t pay their bills. they are delinquent. so, as you see, he campaigned on the notion. he was elected on it. he tweeted about it through the presidency, including on the flight over saying many countries in nato, which we are expected to defend are not only short of their current commitment of 2% which is low, but are also delinquent for many years in payments which have not been made. will they reimburse the u.s.? keeping them honest, there
years in payments which have not been made. will they reimburse the u.s.? keeping them honest, there is nothing to reimburse beyond a token amount to keep the lights on in brussels, each member nation play pays nothing for collective defense, zero. members have their own defense budgets and have agreed to spend 2% of gdp on defense by 2024. as you can see some have already hit the target. some have not. and yes, the united states does spend far more than any other nato country, and yes, past american president, including the most recent one have criticized nato numbers for not spending enough on defense. past presidents have referred to burden sharing, even used words like contributing. they have not, however, said or suggested that other nato countries owe the united states money, let alone back payments, which again these countries do not. and other presidents have openly recognized that nato member nations contribute to the forward bases that allow the u.s. to be a global military s