i am personally against nordstream too. lng gas to europe and we have to see also that germany is bringing the european union together. this gas is not only for germany, it is partly to britain, the netherlands, france, please do not or germany in it and we will do business with whom we want. you can swap stats with me about trump's accuracy and i agree with you, but he was getting at a basic truth. you in germany today spend — you tell me — what percentage of your gdp today are you spending on defence? remind me. germany has not yet achieved the 2% goal. give me a figure. if you would, give me a figure. we are on the way to i.5%. you are not even close! you are not even close to i.5%. you are closer to i.2%. we have another security definition. what we do in africa — 60% of the vote is given by the eu member states, 70% of the humanitarian aid is given by the eu, security is much broader. it is part of security. but we are talking about the future of nato and germany is complacent. when angela merkel, after this message fr

in nordstream 2 is built and doubled, just about all the gas comes from russia. eu has a whole gets 38% from russia this has been an issue going back to the 1980s. the united states was concerned when germany was first becoming dependent on soviet gas. the germans see it differently and see it as a calming kind of a factor, but it has always been a strong and bipartisan concern. president obama, president george w. bush, this administration has opposed the deepening gas connection between germany and europe and within europe, there's a lot of discontent about nordstream 2. the eu is concerned about the monopoly power and will fool with pricing and ruin market forces there the danes are concerned about security and the seabed being used for the pipeline. and the baltic countries and poland are concerned that nordstream 2 would enable russia to cut them off to use political pressure so president trump has picked a pretty interesting and clever, frankly, issue to both continue his feud with chancellor merkel from germany and also to tap into this broad sense of disc

they have been traveling around europe saying that they oppose the nordstream 2 pipeline. they don't think a number of european countries should be dependent on russian energy, so that's been their message, but trump is using the bully pulpit in a totally new way. we have heard that trump behind the scenes has talked in very explicit, somewhat graphic terms, about how sort of russia, you know, really has germany by the balls when it comes to this -- forgive my language. but this is the first time we're seeing it very publicly, very aggressively in the nato summit, which is, you know, obviously a divisive topic, and that's why you saw stultenberg really trying to paper over the differences that are being exposed right now. >> we love the colorful diplomatic language this time of the morning. it's fine. i appreciate it. i wholeheartedly agree. anybody who's up now in the u.s. at 4:11, got a good chuckle. that's great. thank you so much. nice to see you, john hudson from the "washington post" there. >> fascinating, dramatic few hours ahead. >>> all right, well, president trum

who fear that the nordstream 2 pipeline which will bypass the baltic nations and poland, could be used to cut them off from crucial energy supplies. former german chancellor gerhard schroeder is a top executive at the russia government controlled company that runs the pipeline. that's a cozy relationship. wouldn't you like to see schroeder's swiss bank accounts? wouldn't you like to know how much he agreed to be paid? what's clear after day today is that donald trump is not only not sucking up to putin, he is trying to disrupt germany's cozy relationship with russia. he is doing what friends often do with friends who have gotten off track. he is having a frank and brutally honest conversation with them in hopes of righting their course and repairing the relationship. german chancellor angela merkel reacted to trump's suggestion that germany is captive to russia this way. [ speaking foreign language ]. >> laura: you're not going to be independent for long when putin decides to shut down that gas line. did you hear an answer to trump's charges or questions? i didn't. as the american pres

again, the average on a yearly basis coming from russia is about 35% the president singled out the nordstream 2 pipeline. it is a soft spot, quite controversial. negotiated by the former chancellor of germany, gerhard schroeder. 51% controlled by the gas giant from russia. then there's five other players all from western europe and two of them are german companies, as well. so russia's influence will grow. the demand for natural gas will grow. but it is nowhere near 70%. >> real quick, john, any suggestion that with the pipeline, it will grow to 70% of natural gas coming from there? >> no. definitely not. it will grow by 20% over the next two decades. quickly though, president trump has another alternative here -- or another motive, that is. the u.s. is growing as a major natural gas exporter. it is going to be behind qatar and australia. but in the next few years it will have six terminals exporting natural gas. he wants to push this product in to the european union. he's just not saying it outright. that is a fact. >> great to see you, john. thank you for that. >>> coming up for us, yesterd

. >> and -- >> we proposed nordstream 2, we got a -- i'm happy to continue the list. i will submit the entirety of this administration's actions against russia for the record, if i might, will back a truck up and get it in here. >> candidate trump has failed to keep his promise to disclose his tax returns. every presidential candidate since richard nixon has disclosed. jimmy carter sold his peanut farm to avoid a conflict of interest. the interest with president trump's potential foreign policy conflicts of interest is unprecedented and unacceptable. under the emoluments clause, it's unconstitutional as well. let me just ask a couple questions about helsinki. you talked about what you're tasked with. the director of national intelligence coats stated at the aspen security forum said he didn't know what happened nuclear weapons helsinki. did the president personally brief you? are you 100% confident that you know everything that president trump discussed with president putin? that's a very easy yes or no. if you don't want to answer it, i'll move on. yes or no. >> i'm

he talked about the nordstream 2 people line. russia could use energy as a weapon to cooers formally or informally germany or other european countries. they raised it. the european countries raised that risk and support america. i finally talked about the nato mission. its new role in fighting terrorism. i want to say thanks to so many of the european countries that have stepped forward. just this past few two weeks since the nato summit over 1,000 additional commitments from allied nato partners headed to assist us in afghanistan. its a great commitment. something that the president worked hard at the summit and good outcomes for america. >> thank you. you're to be personally to be commended for the great successes and the president in that regard. it's unfortunate that our friends and allies feathers were ruffled a little bit because we said they weren't paying their bills. that's been going on for some time and we'll tolerate that, but they have to step up. i know you underscored that and the president has certainly underscore

there is the nordstream pipeline that would allow russia to undermine the oil and ilities tollies' ab counter. we are engaged in a "all of approach" tont convince countries that increased energy relationships with russia is not consistent with what we're trying to do. tream example is one of those that we think is the wrong direction and allows rush to have the capacity to influence germany and all around europe. hifting back to the asia-pacific and north korea, theld they not commit to process, would you commit to walking away from the negotiating table question mark >> yes. the president has made that clear. risk in china using north korea for -- "whatthe question of evidence?" >> what risk? >> president xi said that he would work alongside me on this shared objective and we're certainly watching to make sure that every country that is committed to helping us achieving that is actually doing that. >> do you see any backsliding on china's part? yes.modest amount, >> do you believe that nato is obsolete? >> i do not. en you meet counterparts mother countries, how do you explain that t