Trump won spending promises from NATO last year. This week, he'll try to enforce them

Summary

President Donald Trump speaks during a media conference at the end of the NATO summit as Secretary of State Marco Rubio, right, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth listen in The Hague, Netherlands, June 25, 2025. Alex Brandon/AP hide caption WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump got what he wanted from NATO at last year's summit: an alliance whose members had largely acceded to his demands to step up their defense spending. This week when he meets leaders in Turkey, his mission is to enforce that pledge. The speed with which most NATO countries have tried to heed Trump's call to spend 5% of their annual gross domestic product on defense over the next decade underscores how the U.S. president has reshaped the alliance and bent it to his will — even as he continues to spar with its members over the Iran war, his flirtation with annexing Greenland, and various personal tiffs. "President Trump fully expects that all allies will step up immediately and get on the path to 5% and do it with urgency," Matt Whitaker, the U.S. ambassador to NATO, told reporters in a preview of the administration's message before this week's summit in Ankara. Trump leaves Monday evening for the summit, and for days leading up to the trip has been airing grievances about how much the U.S. spends on defense compared with other countries. That's despite efforts from Mark Rutte, the alliance's secretary-general, who tried to feed the ego of the tempestuous U.S. leader in an Oval Office meeting last month. He proclaimed that Keir Starmer would resign as British prime minister before the embattled leader made it official, arguing that Starmer "failed badly" on immigration and energy. Meanwhile, Trump asserted that Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni had begged him for a photo, prompting a ferocious denial by her and the cancellation of a U.S. visit by the country's foreign minister. "That's part of what Congress understands that the administration doesn't seem to." NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte speaks during a meeting with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office at the White House, Wednesday, June 24, 2026, in Washington.