National Defense

NATO May Actually Pay Its Fair Share As Trump Turns Up the Heat

(Photo via Marek Studzinski / Unsplash)

European NATO countries are feeling the heat from Washington to increase their defense spending, and they may be inclined to give President Donald Trump what he wants, according to Bloomberg News.

NATO is preparing to host a summit later in June to discuss how to increase their defense spending as the Trump administration pushes Europe to pull its own weight in the defense of the continent, Bloomberg reported. In 2024, 22 NATO members were projected to meet the standard 2% of GDP defense spending target, but the Trump administration is now pushing for 5%, a figure which Europe may be prepared to agree to given pressures like the war in Ukraine.

“Let me cut to the core of our message: 5%,” U.S. ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker told reporters in Brussels, according to Bloomberg. “This is not going to be just a pledge, it’s going to be a commitment.”

In 2024, the nations that fell below the 2% threshold were Croatia, Portugal, Italy, Canada, Belgium, Luxembourg, Slovenia and Spain, according to the Atlantic Council. The current 5% figure is split up into 3.5% of GDP spent on typical defense expenditures and 1.5% spending on security-related projects, like cyber warfare and intelligence, according to Reuters.

“I don’t really care how much they spend. It could be 5%, it could be 10%, it could be 2o%,” Jennifer Kavanaugh, director of military analysis at Defense Priorities, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “My view is that the goal should be self-sufficiency, and that the administration, instead of focusing on this 5% target, should be pushing Europe to think about what it needs to defend itself on its own, and be less involved in the specifics of what that entails.”

Kavanaugh believes that while the specifics need to be worked out during talks, Europe certainly has to spend more if it hopes to be able to stand alone and stop relying on the U.S.

“They do need more, but I still think it’s the right way to go about it,” Kavanaugh told the DCNF.

Some European leaders have been rallying support to spend more on defense, with French President Emmanuel Macron becoming a prominent figure in the push.

“This is important, and this is something you have to realize as well. Because Russia is still a threat. Russia spends 10% of its GDP in defense. It’s close to us, and Russia is aggressive vis-à-vis the Europeans. We have, every week, cyber attacks. We had terrorist attacks,” Macron said during a Fox News Interview February 24. “They have a sort of hybrid war vis-à-vis the Europeans. So we have to step up our expenditure.”

The U.S. has so far spent $184.4 billion to aid Ukraine since fiscal year 2022, while Europe in total spent $266 billion as of December 31, 2024, according to the Council on Foreign Relations.

Trump has long advocated for NATO to increase its defense spending, questioning why the U.S. continues to spend billions on European defense for little gain while some European countries are not able to meet the 2% threshold.

The State Department did not respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.