President Trump on Monday said he told world leaders while in France over the weekend that the United States “must be treated fairly” on trade and military funding.
“Just returned from France where much was accomplished in my meetings with World Leaders. Never easy bringing up the fact that the U.S. must be treated fairly, which it hasn’t, on both Military and Trade,” he wrote in a tweet.
{mosads}”We pay for LARGE portions of other countries military protection, hundreds of billions of dollars, for the great privilege of losing hundreds of billions of dollars with these same countries on trade. I told them that this situation cannot continue – It is, and always has been, ridiculously unfair to the United States,” Trump continued.
He added that other countries must either “pay the United States” or protect themselves.
“Massive amounts of money spent on protecting other countries, and we get nothing but Trade Deficits and Losses. It is time that these very rich countries either pay the United States for its great military protection, or protect themselves…and Trade must be made FREE and FAIR!” he tweeted.
It was unclear how, specifically, Trump proposed linking trade and military funding.
Trump visited France over the weekend to recognize the centennial of the end of World War I.
He came in for criticism after he decided to skip a ceremony honoring American troops who were killed in the First World War on Saturday. Trump did not attend the ceremony, which was held about 60 miles from Paris, because of rain.
Trump also received an implicit rebuke from President Emmanuel Macron of France, who hit out at nationalism in remarks made three weeks after Trump had declared himself a nationalist while campaigning for Republican candidates in the midterm elections.
“Nationalism is a betrayal of patriotism by saying ‘Our interest first. Who cares about the others?'” Macron said on Sunday.
Trump has often complained about cost-sharing in NATO and on trade. He has struck new deals on the latter but his statements on the former have frequently been criticized as misleading by fact-checkers.
–Niall Stanage contributed to this report.