President Trump said he had rescued NATO, claiming the 69-year-old alliance of 29 nations was going down the tubes before he stepped in and shaped it up.

“It was a great meeting in every respect. I would say it was very good. NATO, in particular. I went to NATO. It was essentially going out of business because people weren’t paying. It was going down and down and down,” the president crowed.

“I came along last year and in a fairly nice tone I said, ‘You have got to pay,’ and they paid $44 billion more. And this year, I said it in a little bit stronger tone, and they are paying hundreds of billions of dollars more over the years. And NATO will be strong again,” Trump continued, adding that NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg was his “biggest fan.”

“If you speak to Secretary General Stoltenberg, I think he’s the biggest fan of Trump because he said, ‘We couldn’t collect money until President Trump came along,’” Trump said.

He had berated several leaders at the meeting in Brussels, particularly German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister Theresa May.