# Trump hands Merkel a bullshit bill for $374B

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-hands-merkel-a-bullshit-bill-for-374b/783089>\
**Category:** The BBQ Pit\
**Created:** [March 26, 2017, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-hands-merkel-a-bullshit-bill-for-374b/783089 "2017-03-26T19:28:40Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 54

<div class="post-metadata">

**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, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-hands-merkel-a-bullshit-bill-for-374b/783089/54 "2017-03-27T20:34:46Z")

</div>

I posted this over in the other thread:

> [@Trump handed Merkel an invoice for $ 300 billion for providing military protection](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-handed-merkel-an-invoice-for-300-billion-for-providing-military-protection/783087/32):
>
> 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

> [@Skywatcher](#):
>
> Now we supposedly have an anonymous member of the German government telling BuzzFeed (and only BuzzFeed) that the invoice doesn’t exist.

I wonder why someone would request anonymity to say that it _didn’t_ happen. Don’t you usually ask for anonymity to reveal embarrassing information? It’s like the source thinks it’s more risky to actually say something that vindicates Trump than to pile on.

---

_[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-hands-merkel-a-bullshit-bill-for-374b/783089)._