Major win
NATO allies finally pay their share
President Trump got America's NATO allies to pledge 5% of their economies to defense by 2035, more than double the old 2% goal.
For decades American taxpayers carried most of Europe's defense; now Europe is buying its own shovel.
Every house buys a shovel: how Trump got Europe to pay for its own defense
At The Hague in June 2025, NATO allies agreed to spend 5% of GDP on defense by 2035. In 2025, every ally with armed forces reached the old 2% mark, up from three in 2014.
Why you should care
NATO is a promise that an attack on one member is an attack on all. A promise is only as strong as the muscle behind it, and for most of the alliance's history American taxpayers supplied most of the muscle. When an ally underspends, the gap does not disappear; it lands on the U.S. defense budget and on American troops stationed overseas. A Europe that can defend itself deters Russia better, costs you less, and makes it less likely that your son or daughter gets sent to fill a hole an ally left open.
Picture a cul-de-sac in a Midwest winter. One neighbor owns the only snowblower, and every morning after a storm he clears every driveway on the street. Nobody else buys one. Why would they? The snow gets cleared, and the bill goes to one house.
That was NATO for most of my lifetime. In 2014, after Russia seized Crimea, the allies promised to move toward spending 2% of their economies on defense within ten years. That year, three of them did. By 2022, after eight more years of speeches, the number was seven.
The ask that sounded impossible
President Trump spent his first term telling allies to pay up, and plenty of people in Washington treated it as bad manners. In his second term he raised the ask. At the June 2025 summit in The Hague, the allies agreed to spend 5% of GDP on defense by 2035: at least 3.5% on core defense such as troops, weapons and ammunition, and up to 1.5% on related needs like infrastructure and cybersecurity. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte publicly credited the President's pressure for getting the deal done. Spain negotiated an exemption and drew the President's sharp criticism for it.
What changed on the ground
Pledges are cheap; receipts are what count. The Center for Strategic and International Studies estimates that in 2025 every NATO ally with armed forces reached the 2% mark. The only exception is Iceland, which has no military. After inflation, spending by European allies and Canada rose an estimated 54% between 2022 and 2025. At the Ankara summit in July 2026, NATO projected that European allies and Canada will spend $634 billion on defense this year, nearly 11% more than last year.
I want to be honest about what drove this. Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 frightened Europe in a way no American speech could, and some of this money would have come anyway. Russia supplied the fear. The 5% target supplied the number, and a number with a deadline is something a finance minister has to put in a budget. Ten years is a long time in European politics, so the real test of the 5% goal is the budgets passed between now and 2035.
The snowblower is still in the American garage. It just isn't the only one on the street anymore.
Sources and footnotes
- White House: President Trump's leadership and vision drive NATO breakthrough (June 2025)
- CNBC: NATO allies agree to higher 5% defense spending target (June 25, 2025)
- CSIS: What does NATO defense spending look like heading into the Ankara summit? (July 6, 2026)
- Qatar Tribune (dpa): NATO reports major spending rise as Trump pushes allies to step up (July 8, 2026)