Kevin Lamarque / Reuters
Who had ‘immediately’ in the sweepstakes for how long it would take for President Trump to offend people at the NATO summit? The meeting in Belgium had barely got underway when the president told NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg that Germany was “totally controlled” by Russia, citing wrong statistics about how much energy Germany receives from Putin. Trump suggested 70% of Germany’s gas imports were Russian but the latest official figure was actually 50.75%, according to the BBC. “Ultimately Germany will have almost 70% of their country controlled by Russia with natural gas, so you tell me—is that appropriate?” he asked at Wednesday’s breakfast meeting. “Germany is totally controlled by Russia because they will be getting from 60 to 70% of their energy from Russia, and a new pipeline, and you tell me if that’s appropriate because I think it's not and I think it’s a very bad thing for NATO.” Continuing the public outburst, Trump said: “If you look at it, Germany is a captive of Russia. They got rid of their coal plants, they got rid of their nuclear, they’re getting so much of their oil and gas from Russia. I think it is something NATO has to look at.”