# Trump handed Merkel an invoice for $ 300 billion for providing military protection **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 26, 2017, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-handed-merkel-an-invoice-for-300-billion-for-providing-military-protection/783087 "2017-03-26T18:58:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 32
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2017, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-handed-merkel-an-invoice-for-300-billion-for-providing-military-protection/783087/32 "2017-03-27T20:29:00Z")
As much as I hate Trump and find him to be an embarassment of the highest magnitude, I don’t buy this one either. My WAG is that some German official, speaking on background to a reporter, said something like, “So, Merkel comes over here and this guy not only refuses to shake her hand he literally\* gives her an invoice for the $300 billion he thinks we haven’t paid NATO, because he’s too stupid to understand that’s not how NATO works!” And that somehow evolved into this story. Not that I think Trump _wouldn’t_ do it, just that the evidence for it is ridiculously thin, and, as **JohnT** notes, if Trump had done that, he would have bragged about it. \*_literally_: adj. figuratively --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-handed-merkel-an-invoice-for-300-billion-for-providing-military-protection/783087)._