President Trump's suggestion this week that all NATO members double their targeted defense spending to 4 percent of their economic output is drawing skepticism from defense spending experts.
Trump regularly takes a hardline tact when it comes to negotiations with U.S. allies, often floating more extreme scenarios while trying to nail down specific commitments. He floated the 4 percent figure while pushing allies to reach the current goal of spending 2 percent of their gross domestic product (GDP) on defense.
Lawmakers and administration officials on Sunday eagerly — and in some cases anxiously — anticipated President Trump's meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, as the announcement of charges against Russian intelligence officials added a new wrinkle to the looming tete-a-tete.
Trump and Putin are slated to meet Monday in Helsinki, Finland. It will mark the first one-on-one meeting between the two men since Trump took office, save for one side session during last year’s G-20 summit. The president is going into the meeting with self-described “low expectations.”
