Acting Defense Secretary Denies ‘Cost Plus 50%’ Report on Troops Abroad

Acting Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan is denying reports that the United States plans to start charging foreign countries the entire cost of hosting US troops plus a 50% premium. He said media reports on it were entirely erroneous.

The reports came out last week, quoting officials as saying that this was the culmination of President Trump’s long-standing interest in driving up how much money he gets from other countries for hosting US troops.

Shanahan says that the US is “not going to run a charity,” and that the Trump Administration is determined to make sure every nation pays their “fair share,” without it being at all clear what that share actually amounts to.

Whatever it is, it appears to be uniformly “more.” President Trump pushed South Korea for a substantial increase in funding, and seems to want more increases everywhere else that negotiations on costs seem to be imminent.