Trump Claims There Are 'Numerous Definitions' Of Article 5 En Route To NATO Summit

During a press gaggle on Air Force One, President Trump discussed NATO.

Transcript

00:00new set of problems do you think you'll meet with zelensky when you're there yeah probably i'll see

00:05him yeah what would you say to him say how you doing uh it's a tough he's in a tough situation

00:12should have never been there sir you said a couple days ago that you didn't think the u.s

00:16should have to agree to the five percent increase in gdp on defense no i was the one that said that

00:24what they should be paying as you know uh no i i should do something and they're having a problem

00:29with spain there's always a problem with spain because spain's not agreeing which is very unfair

00:35to the rest of them the u.s won't be increasing our gdp to five percent we should pay what everyone

00:41else you know they're in europe we're not you know a lot of that money goes to rebuilding their bridges

00:46their roads so it can take heavy equipment and you know we don't have any roads in europe we don't

00:52have any bridges in europe so no it wouldn't be quite the same thing for us but we're with them

00:57are you still committed to article five of nato uh depends on your definition there's numerous

01:02definitions of article five you know that right but i'm committed to uh being their friends you

01:09know i've become friends with many of those leaders and i'm committed to helping them what do you want

01:14the role of nato to be going forward once these other countries are spending by having a unified system

01:21i think we're going to have stronger peace better peace and i think we have that you know when i

01:26went to nato they were broke when i first started this whole thing it seems like a long time ago nine

01:33years right but they were broke i knew it immediately i said you guys are broke they weren't paying their

01:39dues seven of the 28 countries at the time it was 28 were paying their dues but they weren't paying very

01:45much nato was broke and i said you're gonna have to pay and we did a whole thing and now they're

01:51they're paying a lot then i said you're gonna have to lift it to four percent or five percent

01:55and five percent is better they just i guess they're voting on that today but they're going to be

02:00lifting it to five percent that's good it gives them much more power

02:05one more follow-up in your comments just now about article five that will probably make some people in

02:11europe concerned can you clarify what you mean are you still committed to mutual defense i'm committed

02:17to saving lives i'm committed to life and safety and i'm going to give you an exact definition when

02:24i get there i just don't want to do it on the back of an airplane