“The complaint came around the time of the last NATO summit in July 2018.”
well, duh. This is how one positions oneself for hard tacks negotiation. I’m sure the MSM floozies have done it a time or two in divorce court themselves. His embarrassing of NATO members for being freeloaders got them to open their pocketbooks and actually think about helping to defend themselves instead of expecting (another) government to kiss their owie and go beat up the bully that pushed them down. Which was the objective.
And, forgot to add, it was also a time that Trump bagged on Merkel publically for working that sweet little oil deal with Russia on the side, while crying America wasn’t doing enough to sanction Russia.