Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer brand Trump’s Nato comments an ‘embarrassment’

'President Trump’s brazen insults and denigration of one of America’s most steadfast allies, Germany, is an embarrassment,' the joint statement reads

Donald Trump’s controversial attacks on Nato allies were described as “brazen insults” and “an embarrassment” by Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer in a joint statement.

The Democratic leaders lambasted Mr Trump for his "denigration of America’s most steadfast allies" after his comments during the NATO summit on Wednesday.

“President Trump’s brazen insults and denigration of one of America’s most steadfast allies, Germany, is an embarrassment,” the statement reads. ”His behaviour this morning is another profoundly disturbing signal that the President is more loyal to President Putin than to our NATO allies."

Mr Trump used his first appearance at the summit to attack foreign allies for contributing less funding to Nato than the US.

The president described other nations as being “delinquent” in their payments and said they needed to begin paying more into the alliance system.

“I think these countries have to step it up, not over a 10-year period, but they have to step it up immediately,” he said at the conference. The comments were met with rebuke from several world leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who touted her nation’s contributions to Nato.

"Germany also does a lot for Nato,” she said. "We are the second largest donor of troops, we put most of our military abilities into the service of NATO and we are strongly committed in Afghanistan, where we also defend the interests of the United States of America. Because the deployment in Afghanistan has to do with the only example of Article 5.”

His latest remarks were also swiftly condemned by Democrats across the country, who slammed Mr Trump for appearing to shift the country’s alliances from longstanding global partners like Germany to Russia.

“If the President leaves the Putin meeting without ironclad assurances and concrete steps toward a full cessation of Russian attacks on our democracy, this meeting will not only be a failure – it will be a grave step backward for the future of the international order and global security. A successful meeting means real action, now,” Mr Schumer and Ms Pelosi’s statement continued. ”The President needs to remember that, as Commander-in-Chief, his duty is to protect the American people from foreign threats, not to sell out our democracy to Putin."

“This is not fair to the people and taxpayers of the United States and many of these nations owe massive amounts of money from past years,” he continued.

The president once again attacked allied nations during his speech in Warsaw from July of last year, when he said “words are easy, but actions are what matters.”

“And for its own protection, Europe – and you know this, everybody knows this, everybody has to know this – Europe must do more,” Mr Trump continued.