Trump praises Trudeau for Canada’s increased military spending

President Trump praised Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday for Canada’s announcement it will bolster its military spending, according to the White House.

A phone call between the two leaders on Friday evening follows Canada unveiling a new defense budget aimed at increasing the country’s military spending budget to $32.7 billion over the next decade. The plan increases Canada’s defense budget by 70 percent over the next decade.

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Trump has made a point of lashing out at NATO allies for “not paying their fair share,” and pressed them to increase their military budgets in order to meet a 2014-set goal of putting two percent of their GDP toward defense spending.

“If we are serious about Canada’s role in the world, then we have to be serious about funding our military,” Canadian Defense Minister Harjit Sajjan said earlier this month. “And we are.”

While Trump thanked Trudeau, other Canadian politicians have insisted Canada needs to play a bigger global role in large part due to a lack of Trump’s leadership.

“The fact that our friend and ally has come to question the very worth of its mantle of global leadership puts into sharper focus the need for the rest of us to set our own clear and sovereign course,” Canada Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland said in an apparent jab at Trump earlier this month.