Brief Outline: Donald Trump claimed that it is because of him NATO countries have increased their budget and these countries have agreed to pay ONE HUNDRED BILLION DOLLARS more

Facts Check: False / Not True

Viral News on Social media:

For the record, Denmark is only at 1.35% of GDP for NATO spending. They are a wealthy country and should be at 2%. We protect Europe and yet, only 8 of the 28 NATO countries are at the 2% mark. The United States is at a much, much higher level than that...

Because of me, these countries have agreed to pay ONE HUNDRED BILLION DOLLARS more - but still way short of what they should pay for the incredible military protection provided. Sorry!

....Because of me, these countries have agreed to pay ONE HUNDRED BILLION DOLLARS more - but still way short of what they should pay for the incredible military protection provided. Sorry!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 21, 2019

Facts Check Analysis: Donald Trump becomes the president of America only in 2017. However, as per NATO press, it was decided in 2014 for a gradual increase of NATO defense budget.

1 week to go until the #NATOSummit

Did you know that this is the 4th consecutive year of increased defence budgets across European Allies & #Canada? The trend is up & we intend to keep it up. ⬆ pic.twitter.com/zNDHURwds6

— Oana Lungescu (@NATOpress) July 4, 2018

Thanks to President Obama, our allies agreed to increase NATO defense spending to 2% of GDP. They have until 2024 to do so. Trump tries to take credit for increases in spending. But the increases have simply been consistent with the timeline agreed to under Obama.

NATO collects defense expenditure data from Allies on a regular basis and presents aggregates and subsets of this information. Each Ally’s Ministry of Defence reports current and estimated future defense expenditure according to an agreed definition of defense expenditure.

 The amounts represent payments by a national government actually made, or to be made, during the course of the fiscal year to meet the needs of its armed forces, those of Allies or of the Alliance. In the figures and tables that follow, NATO also uses up-to-date economic and demographic information available from the Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs of the European Commission (DG-ECFIN), and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

In view of differences between both these sources and national GDP forecasts, and also the definition of NATO defence expenditure and national definitions, the figures shown in this report may diverge considerably from those which are quoted by media, published by national authorities or given in national budgets. Equipment expenditure includes expenditure on major equipment as well as on research and development devoted to major equipment. Personnel expenditure includes pensions paid to retirees.

Just out: first #NATO defence spending numbers for 2019. The real increase across Europe & Canada is 3.9% - the 5th consecutive year of increases in defence budgets. The trend is good: https://t.co/8wuiR2OMO3 pic.twitter.com/aUL4f3IuHp

— Jens Stoltenberg (@jensstoltenberg) June 25, 2019

So it was literally the previous government which were responsible for the defense budget of NATO and not the current president of America Donald Trump.