Trump attacks NATO over alleged US spending to protect them
US President Donald Trump took to Truth Social to criticize NATO over what he claimed was US spending to protect them.“The United States spends more money on NATO than any other country, by far, to protect them, without getting any benefit from doing so,” his post said: “U.S.
$999 billion, United Kingdom, $90.5 billion, France, $66.5 billion, Italy, $48.8 billion, Poland, $44.3 billion.
In other countries, including Germany, it is much lower. (2014-2025) Fucking! President D.G.T
The numbers are real, but the framing is misleading. The $999 billion is cumulative US defense spending, not NATO-specific spending; The bulk went to the situation in the Indo-Pacific region, Middle East operations, homeland defense, and nuclear modernization.
The measure agreed by NATO in 2014 in Wales is a percentage of GDP, and by this measure the picture is reversed. For the first time since the Wales Pledge, all 32 allies have a share of 2% or more of GDP.
NATO’s European members and Canada collectively raised defense spending by 20% in real terms in 2025 to $574 billion, the largest single-year increase in the alliance’s history. Germany broke its constitutional debt to commit $114 billion.
Poland is on track to achieve 5 percent of GDP. Norway now outperforms the United States in per capita spending.
This shift is, in large part, Trump’s doing. The 2% pledge was a dead letter during the Obama-Biden years. It took his political pressure, and Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, to turn that money into cash. Robert Gates warned of a “Two-tier alliance” On his way out of the Pentagon in 2011. The Trump administration, during both terms, finally forced a reckoning.the “No point” The claim is harder to maintain. Total transatlantic investment is nearly $7.4 trillion, annual trade is about $2 trillion, and the European defense market, in which American companies have a strong presence, could be worth $1.14 trillion by 2035. The US military’s global power projection depends on European bases, access to the Mediterranean, and European logistics. Washington is a contributor to European security, not a donor country.The paradox here is that Trump’s pressure worked precisely because European leaders concluded that he might withdraw. However, his open support for far-right parties across Europe — the AfD, France’s National Rally, and others — empowers forces that oppose the very policies Washington demands: increasing defense spending, de-risking Chinese technology, and pressing sanctions on Moscow. The 2025 German elections made the AfD the second largest party.
The 2027 French presidential election looms as the next test.
