Donald Trump upped his criticism of Germany on Wednesday as hethreatened sanctions over Angela Merkel's continued support for agas pipeline from Russia and warned that he could shift troops awayfrom the NATO ally over its defense spending.

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Echoing previous threats about German support for the NordStream 2 pipeline, Trump said he's looking at sanctions to blockthe project he's warned would leave Berlin “captive” to Moscow. TheU.S. also hopes to export its own liquefied natural gas toGermany.

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“We're protecting Germany from Russia, and Russia is gettingbillions and billions of dollars in money from Germany” for itsgas, Trump told reporters at the White House during a meeting withPolish President Andrzej Duda.

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The comments were the latest sign of how U.S.-German ties haveeroded in recent years. The U.S. president has repeatedly rebukedMerkel's government over the pipeline project, trade policies, anddefense spending. Germany, in turn, has criticized Trump's moves toabandon international agreements, including on climate change andIran.

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Though he didn't say which companies or governments couldpotentially face sanctions, Trump's comments about the pipelinegenerated a swift response from Moscow, which said the Americanpresident was engaging in “nothing other than blackmail and a formof unfair competition,” according to Kremlin spokesman DmitryPeskov.

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Merkel and Trump met most recently last week during anniversarycelebrations of the 1944 D-Day invasion. That gathering came daysafter the European Union's (EU's) longest-serving leader took Trumpto task at a commencement address at Harvard University, urgingstudents to “tear down walls” and not to treat “lies as truth.”Without naming the U.S. leader, Merkel left little doubt as to whomshe might mean to a crowd who cheered her on.

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U.S. opposition to the gas pipeline is bipartisan, out ofconcern that Russia could use its supplies of natural gas to exertpressure on Western European nations dependent on the fuel. U.S.lawmakers also fear that with an added northern pipeline for itsgas, Russia could more easily cut off fuel to Ukraine, which is nowa key transit country to Europe.

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“Germany is making a tremendous mistake” by relying on thepipeline from Russia, Trump said during a joint news conferencewith Duda.

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Regardless of the political controversy, the Nord Stream 2project has faced delays and may not be ready to transport gasuntil the second half of 2020, according to a report made public byDenmark's Energy Agency.

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Nord Stream 2 organizers argue a new pipeline is needed toguarantee supplies will continue to flow in the coming decades asEU domestic reserves shrink and import needs rise. Opponents of theproject say it hurts the bloc's cohesion and weakens its EnergyUnion strategy aimed at integrating the region's gas and powermarkets, diversifying energy supplies, and improving security.

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Uniper SE, Engie SA, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, OMV AG, and BASFSE's Wintershall are European partners of Russia's Gazprom PJSC infinancing the project to expand Nord Stream by 55 billion cubicmeters a year. Russia supplies a third of Europe's gas and has noplans to give up its share to the expanding list of competitorsfrom Norway to the United States.

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Trump, speaking during the news conference Wednesday, said thatPoland signed a contract to purchase an additional $8 billion ofliquefied natural gas from U.S. companies, on top of $25 billionalready under contract.

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Trump said he'll meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin atthe Group of 20 summit in Japan at the end of the month, thoughit's not clear the pipeline project will be on their agenda.

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U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry said during a visit to Ukrainein May that he expected Congress to prepare legislation to sanctioncompanies involved in the pipeline's construction.

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Senators Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican, and Jeanne Shaheen, a NewHampshire Democrat, have drafted a bill that would target U.S.sanctions at vessels laying the pipeline and deny U.S. visas toexecutives from companies linked to the ships. The legislationwould also block transactions in U.S.-based property or interestsbelonging to those individuals and would penalize entities thatprovide insurance to the project.

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In the latest sign of Trump's frustration over German defensespending, the president said he's discussed sending as many as2,000 more U.S. troops to Poland—and might take them from Germanysince he believes Berlin isn't spending enough on defense as apartner in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). There aremore than 30,000 U.S. troops in Germany.

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Under an agreement reached during the Obama administration, NATOmembers committed to spending 2 percent of GDP on defense by themid-2020s, a level only seven nations wereestimated to have reached in 2018.

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“Germany's at 1 percent; they should be at 2 percent,” Trumpsaid. According to NATO documents, Germany spent about 1.2 percentof GDP on defense in 2018.

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The U.S. already has a few thousand troops in Poland as part ofits role in NATO. Trump's move, if carried out, would add to that,but it wasn't clear whether the forces would be permanently basedthere or just rotated through.

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— With assistance from DarynaKrasnolutska, Nick Wadhams, Daniel Flatley, Stepan Kravchenko, EwaKrukowska and Vanessa Dezem.

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