President Trump claims US should not need to meet same spending target as rest of NATO

President Donald Trump on Friday claimed that he does not believe the United States should be required to raise its defense spending to 5% of its gross domestic product (GDP) like the rest of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

Trump has long pushed NATO to raise its defense spending in order to help carry the weight. Leaders of other NATO countries are considering boosting their spending commitments to 3.5% of their GDP and an additional 1.5% on defense-related infrastructure by 2032.

The United States currently spends 3.4% of its GDP on defense, according to Politico.

“I don’t think we should, but I think they should,” Trump said about raising defense spending to 5%. “We’ve been supporting NATO so long. … So I don’t think we should, but I think that the NATO countries should, absolutely."

The comment comes as Trump prepares to meet NATO leaders at The Hague in the Netherlands next week for the annual NATO summit. The summit begins on Tuesday and will conclude Wednesday. 

Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.