Our live coverage has ended. Scroll through the posts below to read more about the NATO summit.
President Trump arrived for a NATO reception at 10 Downing Street a few minutes ago, with French President Emmanuel Macron, having apparently given the French President a ride.
He waited a few minutes and then entered with first lady Melania Trump.
Trump and Macron have had a tense day: It started when Macron described the long-time coalition as suffering from “brain death” in part due to a lack of US leadership under Trump. Trump called those comments “insulting.” Later, the two held a news conference, where Macron corrected Trump about ISIS fighters.
What’s happening at the reception: A choir ran through Christmas songs as guests began arriving, including Hark the Herald Angel, Walking in a Winter Wonderland and We Wish You a Merry Christmas.
Jens Stoltenberg, Secretary General of NATO, was first to arrive followed shortly after by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, then German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who stopped to admire the choir.
The NATO leaders are attending a reception hosted by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, and had come from a separate reception hosted by Queen Elizabeth at Buckingham Palace.
French President Emmanuel Macron said although statements he made on NATO on Tuesday “triggered some reactions,” he “stands” by them.
Some background: Last month, Macron described the long-time NATO coalition as suffering from “brain death” in part due to a lack of US leadership under Trump — and refused to back down.
Earlier today, President Trump described Macron’s comment as “nasty” and “insulting.”
Sitting alongside Trump in London today, Macron said he stands by his comments about NATO — describing it as a “burden we share.”
President Trump and first lady Melania Trump have now arrived at Buckingham Palace. They got there at 6:06 p.m. local time.
There were some supporters chanting “USA” as the President drove through the gates.
The Trumps headed to Buckingham Palace after having tea with Prince Charles and Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, at Clarence House.
Here’s a photo from their meeting:
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she’s approaching the NATO summit with optimism.
World leaders are gathering in London to mark the 70th anniversary of the alliance, but tensions have flared between the US and French presidents over comments about the future of NATO.
Earlier today, President Trump said French President Emmanuel Macron was “nasty” when he referred to NATO as suffering from “brain death.” The pair also clashed over ISIS and Russia.
Merkel told reporters that leaders have to continually discuss the role of NATO.
President Trump and first lady Melania Trump will soon have tea with Prince Charles and Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall.
They’re en route to Clarence House now, and seem to be running a few minutes behind schedule.
President Trump, while meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the NATO summit in London, attacked House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff, calling the Democrat a “deranged,” “sick” and a “maniac.”
Trump was asked about Schiff, who is the chair the House Committee that had been conducting hearings in the impeachment inquiry, at the news conference moments ago, where both American and foreign journalists were present.
Trump continued to attack Schiff, claiming that he “made up” the President’s conversation with Ukraine’s leader — a call that’s at the center of the impeachment inquiry.
“I think he’s a very sick man. And he lies. Adam Schiff made up my conversation with the president of Ukraine,” Trump said. “We have a perfectly beautiful three or four-page transcription and in the other case a two-page transcription of the conversation.”
Trump continued: “This guy is sick. He made up the conversation. He lied. If he didn’t do that in the halls of Congress, he’d be thrown in a jail.”
Some background here: Trump has repeatedly claimed that Schiff “lied” about his call with Ukraine’s president.
At a hearing in September, Schiff mentioned the Trump-Ukraine call, but said he would outline “the essence of what the President communicates,” not provide “the exact transcribed version of the call.” You can read CNN’s full fact check here.
President Trump said next year’s G7 summit will be held at Camp David, after previously announcing it would be held at his Florida resort — and then reversing that decision.
“I think it’s been more or less announced we’ll do it at Camp David,” Trump said when asked about the location.
He added that there will be “good access” for the media.
“It will be at camp David, which is a place that people like,” Trump said.
In October, Trump announced that next year’s G7 economic summit of world powers would be held at his own Trump National in Doral, Florida. But just over 48 hours later, he abruptly reversed course and said the summit would not he held at the resort.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that while Canada has not yet reached the 2% contribution to NATO, it continually “stepped up” by sending troops to every NATO deployment.
President Trump — who has frequently criticized NATO members for not contributing their “fair” share to the alliance — was asked if there should be a plan to get Canada to 2%.
“We’ll put them on a payment plan, you know? I’m sure the prime minister would love that,” Trump said.
Trudeau said defense spending is up, and Canada is currently now close to 1.4%.
“They’re getting there. They know it’s important to do that. And their economy is doing well. They’ll get there quickly I think,” Trump said.
That’s when Trudeau brought up Canadian deployments:
Asked about America’s withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal last year, President Trump said Iran wasn’t holding up its side of the deal.
President Trump then added that the US is “looking at doing an agreement” with China and Russia.
But the President had few details on what that would look like, adding, “It might not even happen.”
Following the US withdrawal, Iran announced earlier this year it was also partially stepping back from a landmark nuclear deal, marking a serious escalation in Tehran’s face-off with Washington.
President Trump clarified his earlier comments on Iranian protesters, saying, “We do support them totally and have supported them from the beginning.”
Trump added that he misunderstood an earlier question in which he originally answered that he did not support Iranian protesters.
Moments ago, Trump began his remarks with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau by saying that he misheard the question and thought it was on whether the protesters were supported financially.
Trump reiterated that the US supports Iranian protestors “very, very seriously.”
He also tweeted about the protesters:
President Trump was just asked about the climate crisis, which is a key issue for Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Asked if he thinks about the crisis, Trump said:
“I believe very strongly in very, very crystal clear, clean water and clean air. That’s a big part of climate change,” Trump added, as he sat alongside Trudeau.
Some background: Earlier this year, at a G7 summit, President Trump skipped a session on the climate crisis. In the lead-up to the G7, Trump’s aides said he wasn’t entirely interested in the climate portions of the summit, believing them a waste of time compared to discussion of the economy. The President also pulled the US out of the historic Paris Agreement.
President Trump is attending another bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the NATO summit, this time with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Moments ago, Trump finished a tense meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron.
Like his predecessors Barack Obama and George W. Bush, President Trump has chided NATO members for failing to meet the alliance’s guideline of spending 2% of Gross Domestic Product on defense.
But Trump has also regularly exaggerated US military spending. Sitting with Macron moments ago, he said US spending has been between 4% and 4.3% of GDP.
Fact check: The US is expected to spend 3.42% of GDP on defense in 2019, according to NATO estimates issued in June, similar to its 2018 level.
CNN’s Paris correspondent, Melissa Bell, was watching the meeting between the US and French Presidents in London.
While it’s known that the two have opposing views on many issues, we didn’t expect them to publicly clash, she said.
Here are her takeaways:
They were going to continue their talks but ended up having this very public row on a number of issues that we knew divided them: NATO, tariffs, Turkey and Russia. But we hadn’t expected them to go at it so forcefully and so publicly.
As expected, Macron hit back at Trump’s comments earlier in the day, and specifically on that question of NATO. Trump kept coming back to the question of contributions — what proportion of defense spending members are paying towards NATO.
And Macron kept reminding him: This is not just about money. It’s about strategic positioning. This goes to the heart of the debate between to the two men.
Macron said that what counted was that NATO could decide how they should position themselves.
He essentially told Trump: “You can’t have your cake and eat it too.”
French President Emmanuel Macron played the role of fact-checker when President Donald Trump repeated one of his regular false claims about ISIS fighters.
Trump claimed again that ISIS prisoners being held in Syria are “mostly from Europe.” This assertion has been repeatedly contradicted by Trump’s own officials.
James Jeffrey, Trump’s special envoy to the anti-ISIS coalition, said on August 1 that about 8,000 of about 10,000 terrorist fighters being held in northeastern Syria were Iraqi or Syrian nationals; he said there were “about 2,000 ISIS foreign fighters” from all other countries.
Macron responded that “there are a large number of fighters you have on the ground: ISIS fighters coming from Syria, from Iraq, and the region.”
While it is true that some came from Europe, he said, they are “a tiny minority of the overall problem.”
French President Emmanuel Macron and President Trump just had a tense news conference at the NATO summit in London. The two world leaders clashed over several issues in front of reporters.
Here’s what happened:
On ISIS:
Macron corrected Trump about the number of ISIS fighters with European backgrounds after Trump asked if France was willing to take back French terrorists captured in Syria and Iraq.
“Let’s be serious: The very large numbers of fighters you have on the ground are the fighters coming from Syria, from Iraq and the region,” Macron said.
He added that those coming from Europe are “a tiny minority of the overall problem.”
On Russia:
Trump and Macron had different answers when asked about how NATO members should interact with Russia. Trump said, “I think we get along with Russia” — and then pointed to Macron and added that France has a similar view.
But later, Macron said that while it is “important to have a strategic dialogue with Russia,” leaders “must do so without naïveté.”
On NATO:
Macron addressed the comments he made earlier today — he described the long-time NATO coalition as suffering from “brain death” in part due to a lack of US leadership under Trump — and refused to back down.
“I know that my statements created some reaction,” Macron said. “I do stand by [them].”
Before the news conference with Macron, Trump described Macron’s “brain death” comments as “nasty” and “insulting.”
President Trump contradicted Secretary of State Mike Pompeo today when he told the press in London that he doesn’t back Iranian protestors, despite Pompeo saying last week that the US does support the protestors.
In a tweet Saturday, Pompeo wrote: “As I said to the people of Iran almost a year and a half ago: The United States is with you.” Pompeo, attached his tweet from 2018 in which he told Iranian protesters that the “the United States hears you, supports you and is with you.”
On Monday, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman slammed Pompeo for the comments.
President Trump was asked for his view on NATO’s relationship with Russia.
Trump said his message of closer relations with Russia has gone down well with supporters, during his rallies.
“I think the Russian people would like to see it too,” Trump added, alluding to closer ties with Russia.
“The purpose of NATO can be much more, and I think we’ve shown that flexibility over the last few years,” he said.
President Trump praised the bystanders who fought off the attacker who killed two people on the London Bridge last week.
Dramatic video from the bridge showed a group of bystanders subduing the attacker, one by spraying him with a fire extinguisher and another.
When Trump was asked if he had a comment on the attack, he said:
“I think the way — I think they were British citizens — the way they stepped up was incredible. That was really great,” he added.
Trump called the terror attacker “very violent” and said the attack was “a terrible thing.”
