Trump Botches Another Call With World Leader, Demands America’s NATO Money Back From French President
There has been a lot reported about Donald Trump’s epically bad phone conversations with U.S. allies during his first few weeks in office. And today, Politico is reporting that Trump had another rocky conversation with a world leader.
This time it was with French President Francois Hollande. Politico says, that during the conversation Trump veered “off into rants about the U.S. getting shaken down by other countries, according to a senior official with knowledge of the call, creating an awkward interaction with a critical U.S. ally.”
The report went on to note that while the conversation included discussion of ISIS, Trump mostly used “the exchange to vent about his personal fixations, including his belief that the United States is being taken advantage of by China and international bodies like NATO, the official said.”
At one point during the conversation, Trump said that the French can “continue protecting NATO, but that the United States ‘wants our money back,’ the official said, adding that Trump seemed to be ‘obsessing over money.'”
The official also said, “It was a difficult conversation, because he talks like he’s speaking publicly. It’s not the usual way heads of state speak to each other. He speaks with slogans, and the conversation was not completely organized.”
