President Donald Trump has called on NATO member nations to raise their defense contributions to five percent of their gross domestic product (GDP). Speaking virtually at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday, Trump argued that the current two-percent goal is outdated and unfair to the United States.
“I’m also going to ask all NATO nations to increase defense spending to five percent of GDP, which is what it should have been years ago,” Trump said. He pointed out that before his presidency, most NATO members were not meeting the two-percent benchmark established in 2014. At that time, only six of NATO’s 28 member nations contributed two percent or more of their GDP to defense. Trump added, “I insisted that they pay, and they did, because the United States was really paying the difference. It was unfair to the United States.”
Trump has long criticized NATO’s financial imbalance, highlighting how the U.S. bears a disproportionate share of the costs compared to European nations. Earlier this month, Trump said, “Europe is in for a tiny fraction of the money that we’re in. We have a thing called the ocean in between us, right? Why are we in for billions and billions of dollars more money than Europe?”
European leaders, including defense ministers from France, Germany, Italy, Poland, and the United Kingdom, have expressed openness to increasing defense spending but described Trump’s proposed five-percent target as “complicated.” Economic and logistical challenges remain a concern, though there is a general agreement among NATO members on the need for stronger defense investments.
The current two-percent spending benchmark was introduced in 2014 in response to Russia’s annexation of Crimea. Trump’s proposal to increase the target to five percent reflects his belief that NATO must build greater collective defense capabilities while reducing the financial burden on the United States.
