US President Donald Trump on Thursday called the United States’ relationship with NATO “ridiculous” and criticised it for being “one-sided,” just days ahead of the alliance’s summit in Ankara, Turkey.
“They weren’t there for us!!!” Trump posted on his Truth Social network, claiming the partnership with NATO lacked reciprocity.
His post featured a chart illustrating NATO spending figures. According to the figures, the United States allocates $999 billion to defence, compared to $90.5 billion by the UK and $66.5 billion by France. “Other countries like Germany are FAR BELOW,” Trump commented, in his signature style.
However, these figures reflect overall defence budgets of NATO members spent on their own military forces. NATO’s latest report estimates that US defence spending will reach $980 billion by 2025. Trump has proposed increasing that budget to $1.5 trillion next year.
Donald Trump is set to attend the NATO summit in Ankara on 7–8 July. This comes after he criticised European allies for refusing to back the war he initiated with Israel against Iran in February.
Under pressure from Trump, NATO’s 32 member states agreed at last year’s summit in The Hague to spend at least 5% of their GDP on defence by 2035.
The president has also stressed his desire for Europe to take a leading role in defence. Washington has already begun scaling back its own commitments in line with this vision.
