their fair share, they haven't been for years, and they owe the u.s. money. keeping him honest, as you'll see, that is simply not the case. it's not the way it works. it's not even close. it is, however, the way president trump believes it works, and he said so for years. >> number one, nato is obsolete. and number two, the people aren't paying their way. >> it's obsolete and we pay too much money. >> nato, we're going to have the people that aren't paying, they're going to start paying. >> it's obsolete. >> they were getting ripped in nato. they don't pay their bills. >> they are delinquent. >> so, as you see, he campaigned on the notion. he was elected on it. he tweeted about it through the presidency, including on the flight over saying many countries in nato, which we are expected to defend are not only short of their current commitment of 2% which is low, but are also delinquent for many years in payments which have not been made. will they reimburse the u.s.? keeping them honest, there is nothing to reimburse beyond a token amount to keep the lights on in brussels, each member nation play pays nothing for collective defense, zero. members have their own defense budgets and have agreed to spend 2% of gdp on defense by 2024. as you can see some have already hit the target. some have not. and yes, the united states does spend far more than any other nato country, and yes, past american president, including the most recent one have criticized nato numbers for not spending enough on defense. past presidents have referred to burden sharing, even used words like contributing. they have not, however, said or suggested that other nato countries owe the united states money, let alone back payments, which again these countries do not. and other presidents have openly recognized that nato member nations contribute to the forward bases that allow the u.s. to be a global military superpower, also, that many sent soldiers who died for news afghanistan after 9/11 because the nato treaty, article 5 calls for just that. in any case, the president believes they're freeloading, and today he demand member