Trump said at a press conference at the Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida on Tuesday that he wants to see a significant increase in support from NATO countries. His proposal is to increase the defense budget to five percent of the individual countries' gross national products.
They can all afford it, but it should be five percent – not two percent, Trump said to reporters, referring to the current requirement of GNP in member support to NATO.
Trump said at the press conference that Europe only invests a fraction of what the USA spends on its defense.
We have something called an ocean between us. Why do we pay billions and billions of dollars more than Europe? Trump asked rhetorically.
During his previous presidential term, Trump threatened to leave NATO if European countries did not increase their defense allocations and thus their support to NATO. Since then, the war in Ukraine has strained both the military alliance's and the individual countries' defense costs.
Even NATO's new Secretary-General, the Dutchman Mark Rutte, believes that NATO countries must invest more in their defense to strengthen the alliance's military power.
We will need much more than two percent, he said in a speech on December 13 in Brussels, indirectly referring to the USA and new leadership:
We are 32 NATO countries. Together, we represent half of the world's economic and military power.
