Trump went off at the NATO summit with wild comments about climate change, ISIS fighters, and Adam Schiff
- President Donald Trump made his mark on yet another NATO summit in London, England on Tuesday with a series of wild, off-the-cuff comments in meetings with world leaders.
- Throughout his presidency, Trump has created awkward moments at international summits by sharply criticizing the US's European allies over trade, defense issues, and NATO's budget.
- In his sit-down meetings with French President Emmanuel Macron and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Trump raised eyebrows with a number of insulting and exaggerated statements.
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President Donald Trump made his mark on yet another North Atlantic Treaty Association (NATO) summit in London, England on Tuesday with a series of wild, off-the-cuff comments in meetings with world leaders.
Throughout his presidency, Trump has created highly awkward moments at international summits by sharply criticizing the US's European allies over, among other things, trade, defense issues, and NATO's budget.
In both his sit-down meetings with French President Emmanuel Macron and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Trump raised eyebrows with a number of insulting and exaggerated statements about subjects including ISIS fighters, climate change, and his own political foes in the United States.
Here are some of Trump's most outlandish comments at this year's summit so far, reported by CNN's Daniel Dale and Jim Sciutto:
- In his meeting with Macron, Trump incorrectly claimed that the European Union was partly created to "take advantage of the United States."
- Trump and Macron also had a tense back-and-forth over what to do about captured ISIS fighters, with Trump saying, "Would you like some nice ISIS fighters? I could give them to you. You could take every one you want," and Macron sternly responding, "Let's be serious...ISIS is not yet done. I'm sorry to say that. You still have fighters in this region."
- On the US-Russia relationship, Trump said, "We can get along with Russia. I think it's a good thing to get along with Russia. I go to big stadiums and people like it."
- When asked if he supported the ongoing protests in Iran, Trump initially said, "I don't want to comment on that, but the answer is no. But I don't want to comment" before clarifying that he did, in fact, support the protesters and misheard the original question.
- Trump then turned to the ongoing impeachment inquiry, saying that in the future, a Republican Congress would impeach a Democratic president, "because somebody picked an orange out of a refrigerator and you don't like it, so let's go and impeach him."
- In his meeting with Trudeau, Trump called House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Adam Schiff "a maniac," adding, "I think Adam Schiff is a deranged human being. I think he grew up with a complex for lots of reasons that are obvious."
- On the subject of climate change, Trump said, "I think about it all the time. Honestly, climate change is very important to me. I believe very strongly in very, very crystal clear, clean water and clean air. That's a big part of climate change."
- On the topic of Canada's contributions to NATO members' spending goals, Trump joked, "We'll put Canada on a payment plan. I'm sure the prime minister would love that."
Read more of our coverage of the 2019 NATO summit:
It's getting harder for NATO to hide that Turkey's becoming 'a thorn in everyone's side'