US President Donald Trump issued a volley of tweets on Monday venting anger on some of Washington's closest NATO allies over the United State's trade deficit, following a divisive G7 meeting in Canada. "Fair trade is now to be called fool trade if it is not reciprocal," said Trump, who flew from Canada to Singapore for a meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. "Not fair to the people of America! $800 billion trade deficit," he said.
"Why should I, as president of the United State, allow countries to continue to make massive trade surpluses, as they have for decades, while our farmers, workers & taxpayers have such a big and unfair price to pay?" Trump went on to lambast fellow members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) for paying disproportionately less than the United States to maintain the Western alliance. "The US pays close to the entire cost of NATO - protecting many of these same countries that rip us off on trade (they pay only a fraction of the cost - and laugh!)," he tweeted. "The European Union had a $151 billion surplus - should pay much more for military!"
