{"id":72870,"date":"2018-04-04T00:05:18","date_gmt":"2018-04-04T00:05:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/uncategorized\/2018\/04\/04\/trump-tells-baltic-leaders-that-us-is-very-tough-on-russia\/"},"modified":"2026-08-18T20:43:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T20:43:11","slug":"trump-tells-baltic-leaders-that-us-is-very-tough-on-russia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/flashpoints\/2018\/04\/04\/trump-tells-baltic-leaders-that-us-is-very-tough-on-russia\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump tells Baltic leaders that US is \u2018very tough on Russia\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">WASHINGTON \u2014 President Donald Trump made the case to the leaders of the Baltic nations Tuesday that the U.S. was \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/flashpoints\/2018\/03\/26\/diplomats-ousted-us-europe-punish-russia-over-spy-case\/\" title=\"\" class=\"\" target=\"_blank\">very tough on Russia<\/a>,\u201d pointing to U.S. support for increased defense spending by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/flashpoints\/2018\/03\/27\/nato-joins-wave-of-russian-diplomat-expulsions\/\" title=\"\" class=\"\" target=\"_blank\">NATO countries<\/a> as a check on Moscow\u2019s aggression.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Trump, joined by the presidents of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, spoke a day after the White House dangled the prospect of extending a White House welcome to Russian President Vladimir Putin. The three former Soviet states border Russia and are viewed as a bulwark against Russian incursions in Eastern Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cNobody has been tougher on Russia, but getting along with Russia would be a good thing, not a bad thing. And just about everybody agrees to that except very stupid people,\u201d Trump said in a Cabinet Room meeting with the leaders. \u201cWe\u2019ve been very tough on Russia, frankly.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2018\/03\/27\/mattis-poisoning-in-britain-is-attempted-murder-by-russia\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-936511634.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">Mattis: Poisoning in Britain is &#8216;attempted murder&#8217; by Russia<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">The poisoning in Britain of a former Russian spy and his daughter amounts to \u201cattempted murder\u201d by the Russian government and furthers a pattern of Russian efforts to divide the U.S.-led Western alliance, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Tuesday.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Trump was asked by a reporter if he considered Putin to be a friend or foe. He replied, \u201cWe\u2019ll find out. I\u2019ll let you know.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Later, during a joint news conference with the leaders, Trump said he was hopeful he could have \u201cgreat dialogue\u201d with Putin but cast the ties between the U.S. and Russia as an open question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI think I could have a very good relationship with Russia and with President Putin and if I did, that would be a great thing and there is also a great possibility that that won\u2019t happen,\u201d Trump said at the news conference. \u201cWho knows?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"637\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP18093651828375.jpg.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-106398\" srcset=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP18093651828375.jpg.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP18093651828375.jpg.jpg?resize=300,187 300w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP18093651828375.jpg.jpg?resize=768,478 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">President Donald Trump motions to reporters waiting to ask questions during a news conference with Latvian President Raimonds Vejonis, Estonian President Kersti Kaljulaid, and Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite in the East Room of the White House, Tuesday, April 3, 2018, in Washington. (Evan Vucci\/AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Britain recently blamed Russia for the nerve-agent poisoning of a former Russian spy on British soil. Trump joined Britain in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/flashpoints\/2018\/03\/29\/russia-responds-quid-pro-quo-to-diplomats-expulsions\/\" title=\"\" class=\"\" target=\"_blank\">expelling scores of Russian diplomats<\/a> in response.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Trump has pressured NATO members to boost their military budgets to meet a benchmark of 2 percent of their GDP on defense annually. He cited that as a benefit to the three Baltic nations, which are NATO members and remain anxious over Russia\u2019s increasing military maneuvers in the Baltic Sea region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In its latest effort, Russia planned to hold naval exercises on the Baltic Sea this week complete with missile tests, closing portions of the sea from civilian traffic, a concern to the Baltic nations and the Nordics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Lithuania\u2019s Dalia Grybauskaite told Trump that the U.S. role in NATO is essential, calling the nation a \u201cvital voice\u201d in the military alliance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe expect, together with the United States, to go ahead with deep reforms of NATO, especially on decision-making, on decisiveness, on the denial which we expect to see from Russia in case of aggression,\u201d Grybauskaite said. \u201cWithout the United States, this is not possible.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Baltic leaders noted their security commitments under NATO. Grybauskaite said the Article 5 collective defense under NATO was \u201ciron-clad for all of us\u201d while Estonia\u2019s Kersti Kaljulaid said the countries are \u201can axis of good.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Trump said NATO \u201chas taken many billions of dollars more than they would have had if you had crooked Hillary Clinton as president.\u201d The 2 percent benchmark concerns how much each country spends on its own defense, not what it pays into NATO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He also cited the expansion of imports of liquefied natural gas from the U.S. to reduce reliance on Russian gas, again pointing to his vanquished 2016 presidential rival. \u201cMy opponent was into other forms of energy, like windmills,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The U.S. summit marked the three Baltic nations\u2019 100 years of independence. The countries declared their independence from Russia in 1918 but were incorporated into the Soviet Union in 1940 and remained part of it until 1991.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The press conference included a brief Trump commentary on the U.S. news media. At one point, he gestured to Latvian President Raimonds Vejonis to call upon a reporter for a question, \u201ca Baltic reporter, ideally,\u201d Trump said, as American journalists enthusiastically raised their hands and called his name. Trump added: \u201cReal news, not fake news.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Eventually, Trump bypassed the American reporters and the Latvian leader and called on a Baltic reporter himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><i>Associated Press writers Catherine Lucey in Washington and Jari Tanner in Helsinki contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>President Donald Trump made the case to the leaders of the Baltic nations Tuesday that the U.S. was \u201cvery tough on Russia,\u201d pointing to U.S. support for increased defense spending by NATO countries as a check on Moscow\u2019s aggression.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":106396,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":8,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[101,8,12,26,62],"tags":[8535,8534,8533],"coauthors":[2251],"class_list":["post-72870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-flashpoints","category-news","category-newsletters","category-pentagon-congress","tag-estonia","tag-latvia","tag-lithuania"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"KGYSB4J2CZDUDDV6IUXY6XG24M","arc_canonical_url":"\/flashpoints\/2018\/04\/04\/trump-tells-baltic-leaders-that-us-is-very-tough-on-russia\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Trump tells Baltic leaders that US is \u2018very tough on Russia\u2019 - Navy Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"President Donald Trump made the case to the leaders of the Baltic nations Tuesday that the U.S. was \u201cvery tough on Russia,\u201d pointing to U.S. support for increased defense spending by NATO countries as a check on Moscow\u2019s aggression.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Trump tells Baltic leaders that US is \u2018very tough on Russia\u2019\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"President Donald Trump made the case to the leaders of the Baltic nations Tuesday that the U.S. was \u201cvery tough on Russia,\u201d pointing to U.S. support for increased defense spending by NATO countries as a check on Moscow\u2019s aggression.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/flashpoints\/2018\/04\/04\/trump-tells-baltic-leaders-that-us-is-very-tough-on-russia\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Navy Times\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-04-04T00:05:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-08-18T20:43:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ken Thomas, The Associated Press\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Ken Thomas, The Associated Press\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" 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