Trump Wants NATO to Expand into the Middle East and to be Renamed NATOME

US President Donald Trump believes NATO needs to expand to include countries in the Middle East, and suggests a new name for the 70-year-old Alliance: NATOME, short for NATO-Middle East.

"What a beautiful name -- NATOME," Trump said Thursday, pronouncing it "Nay-TOE-me."

He stressed that the United States had pressured Islamic State extremists by taking control of the territory and killing the leader of the organization Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

"We did Europe a big favour," he said.

"I think NATO should be expanded and we should include the Middle East, absolutely. ... Right now the burden is on us and that's not fair," Trump said.

The US president added that he wants to see more NATO troops in the Middle East because the problems in the region are international. He stressed that he had discussed NATO's role yesterday in a telephone conversation with Organization Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg.

"I think he was actually excited about it. I actually had a name. NATO, right, and then you have ME, Middle East. They would call it NATOME," Trump said.

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