Trump May Charge Allies Up To 600% More For Hosting US Troops

Nations hosting American forces could be asked to pay five to six times as much as they do now under the “Cost Plus 50” formula.

Published

 6 hours ago 

on

 March 9, 2019

By

 Tyler Durden

599 Views

Via Zerohedge…

---

President Trump has ordered his administration to draw up formal demands for Germany, Japan and all other countries hosting American troops to pay the full price of US soldiers deployed on their soil, along with a 50% premium for the privilege of hosting them, reports Bloomberg, citing a dozen administration officials and people briefed on the matter.

In some cases, nations hosting American forces could be asked to pay five to six times as much as they do now under the “Cost Plus 50” formula. –Bloomberg

Trump has long-complained that countries hosting US troops aren’t paying enough, to the point where he nearly derailed recent talks with South Korea over how much they’re paying for the 28,000 US troops on their soil – overruling his negotiators and telling National Security Advisor John Bolton “We want cost plus 50.”

The president’s team sees the move as one way to prod NATO partners into accelerating increases in defense spending — an issue Trump has hammered allies about since taking office. While Trump claims his pressure has led to billions of dollars more in allied defense spending, he’s chafed at what he sees as the slow pace of increases. –Bloomberg

“Wealthy, wealthy countries that we’re protecting are all under notice,” said Trump during a January 17 speech at the Pentagon. “We cannot be the fools for others.”

Donald J. Trump

✔@realDonaldTrump

Jens Stoltenberg, NATO Secretary General, just stated that because of me NATO has been able to raise far more money than ever before from its members after many years of decline. It’s called burden sharing. Also, more united. Dems & Fake News like to portray the opposite!

110K

3:11 PM - Jan 27, 2019

Twitter Ads info and privacy

41.5K people are talking about this

Bloomberg‘s sources caution that the idea is “one of many under consideration,” in order to try and convince US allies to pay more, and the plan may be toned down. That said, “it has sent shock waves through the departments of Defense and State, where officials fear it will be an especially large affront to stalwart US allies in Asia and Europe.”