Trump said he has come up with a 'beautiful' new name for NATO: 'NATOME'

• Donald Trump has called on NATO to play a more active role in the Middle East.
• He said he has come up with a new name for an expanded military alliance: "NATOME."
• The President told reporters that NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg seemed "very excited" about possibly adding the letters "ME" to the body's title.
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President Donald Trump believes he has come up with a "beautiful" new name for NATO, telling reporters that the military alliance should play a bigger part in the Middle East and call itself "NATOME."

Trump on Thursday said that he had discussed giving NATO a new name with the the alliance's chief, Jens Stoltenberg, and that he seemed "very excited" by the suggestion.

"I think he was actually excited about it. I actually had a name," Trump said.

"NATO, right, and then you have ME, Middle East. They would call it NATOME."

"I'm good at names, right."

The President added: "What a beautiful name - NATOME."

Trump has called on NATO - a global alliance of 29 countries including the United States - to play a more active role in the Middle East after a week which saw tensions between Washington and Iran escalate to military action.

Here's Trump suggesting a 'beautiful' new acronym for NATO

Trump has often found himself at odds with key US allies in NATO.

This week European leaders held talks about trying to salvage the Iran nuclear deal, which Trump withdrew the US from in 2018.

The agreement is designed to halt Iran's nuclear program, but Tehran said on Sunday - following the US assassination of top Iranian general Qassem Soleimani - that it no longer felt compelled to stick to its terms.

"What a beautiful name - NATOME."

Trump proposes the inclusion of Middle East nations in #NATO.https://t.co/5ig2my4IZY pic.twitter.com/W2vD7eNRql

- euronews (@euronews) January 10, 2020