Trump Wins the Battle of NATO

The alliance sets a 5% of GDP target, though a Ukraine decision looms.

America has long asked its European allies to spend more on their own self-defense. So the astonishing news out of this week’s North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit is the near unanimity: NATO allies have agreed to devote 5% of their economies to military spending, up from the current 2% floor.

President Donald Trump, along with the King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima of the Netherlands, poses for a family photo as he participates in the 2025 NATO summit in The Hague, on Tuesday, June 24, 2025. Haiyun Jiang/Pool via REUTERS (via REUTERS)

President Trump called the NATO plan “a big one for Europe and for actually Western civilization,” and for once he may not be overselling. The allies will aim to spend 3.5% of GDP on hard military power by 2035. For the remaining 1.5 percentage points, countries can count peripheral but still useful investment such as hardening cyber defenses.

Mark Rutte is catching flak for praising Mr. Trump, but the NATO Secretary General was correct to give the President credit. “Would you ever think,” Mr. Rutte asked reporters, “that this would be the result of this summit if he would not have been re-elected President?”

It’s a fair point. A President Kamala Harris might have shown more politeness and avoided futile public spats. But what matters is whether the alliance has the will and the means to defend itself.

No question the 5% will be a heavy lift for some NATO laggards. Spain, which spent 1.28% of its economy on defense in 2024, is already trying to duck the agreement. Others on the dishonor roll include Slovenia (1.29%); Belgium (1.3%); and Canada (1.37%), though Ottawa is now promising to do better.

The 5% figure wasn’t pulled from thin air. Mr. Rutte has been pressing the case that the target is rooted in the hardware needed to protect the continent. The specifics are classified, but Mr. Rutte says the shopping list includes:

“A five-fold increase in air defence capabilities. Because we see Russia’s deadly terror from the skies over Ukraine every day, and we must be able to defend ourselves from such attacks. Thousands more tanks and armored vehicles. Because even though warfare is changing fast, we still need to be able to protect our soldiers on the battlefield, and to maneuver. And millions of rounds of artillery ammunition, because it is by having these stockpiles that we can deter aggression from any threat.”

Hear, hear to that clear strategic thinking, long overdue from Europe. Left out at the summit, however, is whether Mr. Trump is prepared to help Europe arm Ukraine as Russia refuses to end its brutal assault. The President’s strike against Iran bolstered deterrence, but the Ukraine decision is phase two.