President Trump tweeted criticism of Germany on Tuesday in an apparent response to recent remarks by Angela Merkel, stating the European country was not meeting its NATO defense obligations.
Trump, who criticized NATO countries last week for not paying their fair share of gross domestic product toward defense, also commented on a "massive" trade deficit with Germany.
"We have a MASSIVE trade deficit with Germany, plus they pay FAR LESS than they should on NATO & military. Very bad for U.S. This will change," he wrote.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/869503804307275776
On Sunday, Merkel said at a rally in Bavaria that Europeans must "take our destiny into our own hands." Coming after summits with Trump at the G-7 meeting in Italy and the NATO summit in Belgium, the comments were interpreted as her stating that the U.S. leadership role in the world had been diminished under Trump.
"All I can say is that we Europeans must really take our destiny into our own hands," she said. "The times in which we can fully count on others are somewhat over, as I have experienced in the past few days."
Trump also commented on the ongoing investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election, deriding it as a "lame excuse" for Democrats losing. Trump has continually insisted there was no collusion between his campaign and any Russian officials.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/869509894688387072