NBC News: Trump wants to stop defending NATO allies that donʼt spend enough on defense

The US President Donald Trump is considering major changes to the format of the US participation in NATO. For example, he wants to abandon obligations to defend allies that do not spend enough on defense.

NBC News reports this, citing sources.

That is, Trump, according to the publication, wants to partially abandon compliance with Article 5 of the NATO charter — it obliges to provide military assistance to allies that have been attacked. According to Trump, the United States should not defend Alliance members that do not spend enough on defense.

The new policy also considers abandoning exercises with countries with low defense spending. The US plans to give priority to those that spend enough on defense.

In response to a formal request for comment, the National Security Council said that “President Trump is committed to NATO and Article Five”.

Trump has repeatedly criticized European NATO allies for what he believes is insufficient defense spending and has threatened them, in particular, with a potential US withdrawal from the Alliance if they do not increase their spending. Under current agreements, NATO countries’ military spending should exceed 2% of GDP. As of 2024, only 23 of the 32 Alliance countries have reached this figure. The largest spenders are Poland (4.1%), while the United States spends 3.4% of GDP on defense.

• Trump has repeatedly demanded that European leaders invest more money in NATO. He has previously said that he would “encourage” Russia to “do whatever it wants” with NATO member states that have failed to meet their financial obligations to the alliance.
• Will the US actually be able to withdraw from NATO? This is a difficult question. Article 13 of the North Atlantic Treaty gives states the right to withdraw from the Alliance. To do this, the country must notify the US, and they must notify all other states. But how the US, which actually created it, should withdraw from the Alliance, was, as expected, not prescribed in the treaty, because it could not imagine such a situation.

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