German government denies receiving NATO invoice from Trump

The German government is denying reports that President Trump gave Chancellor Angela Merkel a bill for money owed to NATO.

“Reports that President Trump had presented the federal chancellor with a kind of bill with a concrete billion sum are not true,” said spokesman Steffen Seibert, as reported by Politico Europe.

Seibart’s comment comes after the Times of London reported on Sunday that Trump gave Merkel a bill for NATO defenses during her trip to Washington, D.C., earlier this month. The newspaper had quoted an anonymous German minister describing the bill.

{mosads}The White House on Sunday said the report was false.

Trump has previously criticized the alliance and argued member nations do not spend enough to support it.

After meeting with Merkel at the White House earlier this month, Trump said Germany owed NATO “vast sums of money.”

“Despite what you have heard from the FAKE NEWS, I had a GREAT meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Nevertheless, Germany owes … vast sums of money to NATO & the United States must be paid more for the powerful, and very expensive, defense it provides to Germany!” the president wrote in multiple tweets. 

Merkel said during her joint press conference with Trump that Germany plans to increase its spending on NATO to 2 percent of its gross domestic product, a target alliance members agreed to but which many do not meet.