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President Donald Trump has revealed texts from a private chat with the NATO chief that includes a chilling warning.
The president made the desicion to make the private conversation with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte public, and the content has left people in shock.
Trump has caused a stir since making his return to the Oval Office in January of this year.
After ordering an air strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities, the decision has received a mixed response from other world leaders.
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Now, according to a report by the Telegraph, the reaction from Rutte has also been revealed to the public.
In a message, the NATO chief wrote: “Congratulations and thank you for your decisive action in Iran, that was truly extraordinary, and something no one else dared to do. It makes us all safer.
Referring to the NATO summit that’s currently taking place in the Netherlands, Rutte went on to write: “You are flying into another big success in The Hague this evening. It wasn’t easy but we’ve got them all signed onto 5%!”
The percentage Rutte was referring to was how much of each country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) will be spent on the military, a key demand of Trump’s.
Elsewhere in Rutte’s gushing text to Trump, he spoke of what Europe should expect at this year’s NATO summit, going on to say: “You will achieve something NO American president in decades could get done. Europe is going to pay in a BIG way, as they should, and it will be your win.”
In an update issued yesterday (June 25), it was confirmed that the 5% has now been officially agreed upon, meaning that NATO member states will now spend that percentage of their annual GDP on defense and security in the next decade, according to the BBC - European countries included.
Following the news, Rutte told summit-goers: “For too long, one ally, the United States, carried too much of the burden. That changes today.”
Also weighing in on the move, Trump said that the decision was a ‘great victory for everybody’.
The NATO official also spoke to reporters about his feelings on Trump sharing his private text messages, saying there was nothing in the message that needed to be kept a secret, and instead insisted that without the support from President Trump, the 2% target for defense spending for all NATO countries would never have been reached.
