At ‘transformational’ NATO meeting, Trump gets allies to commit 5% GDP

Coming off U.S. air strikes on Iran that were praised by the chief of the NATO summit that wrapped up Wednesday, President Donald Trump drove the security agenda, getting most of what he demanded.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte opened the summit in his hometown, The Hague, Netherlands, noting the goal of the meeting was “making NATO a stronger, a fairer and a more lethal Alliance.”  

By most measures, that mission was accomplished.  

The biggest win of the day for Trump and NATO was a pledge by the member states to hike defense spending to 5% of each member’s gross domestic product by 2035.  

Trump has been a long-time proponent of America’s European allies hiking defense spending, charging that the U.S. has had to bear the financial brunt of defending Europe.   

In return for the renewed commitment to spending, the member states got an ironclad commitment from Trump to stand by the alliance.  

The spending increase was praised by Trump and Rutte, who called the summit “transformational,” according to an analysis by the Council on Foreign Relations.  

Now, the alliance that was once seen as the tail end of an old, tired partnership has been transformed into a new, dynamic, front-end commitment to collective security – led by Europeans.  

“This is a big day for NATO. This is a very big day,” Trump told reporters at the end of the summit on Wednesday. “One of the gentlemen said, ‘You know what? We’ve been trying to raise money, raise the rate [of European NATO spending] for 30 years’ … from almost the beginning, and he’s been there for a long time. He said, ‘Until you came along it never happened.’” 

Prior to the summit, doubts were raised about whether Trump was committed to the alliance.  

But because of the spending increases, Trump raised no objections to the “ironclad commitment” and security guarantee “that an attack on one is an attack on all” inserted in the summit’s final statement, reported the Associated Press. 

The U.S. president also huddled with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, who actually wore a suit – without a tie – a departure from the Ukrainian leader’s standard military fatigues which have been criticized as too informal by some. 

The two met to help bring a resolution to the bitter three-year war between Ukraine and Russia. 

“I had a long and substantive meeting with President Trump @POTUS,” said Zelensky via X.  “We covered all the truly important issues. I thank Mr. President, I thank the United States. We discussed how to achieve a ceasefire and a real peace. We spoke about how to protect our people. We appreciate the attention and the readiness to help bring peace closer.”  

Trump characterized the meeting as “very nice,” heaping praise on the Ukraine president with whom he’s previously had a sticky relationship. 

The U.S. president said he’d be calling Russian President Vladimir Putin to see if he could get peace talks started again. 

The Kyiv Post reported about a moving exchange between Trump and a Ukrainian reporter whose husband is a soldier fighting Russia. Trump told her he’d consider sending more Patriot missile batteries to help Ukraine. 

He then added, “Say hello” to her husband from the president.   

If the meeting was “transformational” for the alliance as claimed by NATO’s Rutte, it might’ve been equally transformational for Trump himself, who left believing in the alliance, and more significantly, believing the alliance loved the U.S. 

He called the summit “historic” and said it was a “big win for Western civilization,” reported the Post.   

“It’s not a rip-off,” Trump said of the NATO partnership. “We are here to help them protect their country.” 

Feature image: WhiteHouse.gov