Hugh Cameron is Newsweek Live News Reporter based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on international politics, conflict, and crime. Hugh joined Newsweek in 2024, having worked at Alliance News Ltd where he specialised in covering global and regional business developments, economic news, and market trends. He graduated from the University of Warwick with a bachelor’s degree in politics in 2022, and from the University of Cambridge with a master’s degree in international relations in 2023. Languages: English. You can get in touch with Hugh by emailing [email protected]
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
If it is implemented in the United States, Donald Trump’s call so that NATO members are under defense spending can force the United States to assign another $ 500 billion years.
The calculation, made by Russian-born American author and military historian Max Boot, in response to the president-elect’s recent demand for the alliance to raise its current spending target for each of its members from 2 to 5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP).
When contacted for comment, the Trump transition team referred Newsweek back to the remarks made by the president-elect during the Tuesday press conference.
In addition to his most recent request, reports of which emerged last month, Trump suggested NATO members contribute more to defense, saying the U. S. has billed the European security bill for too long, even threatening to eliminate the U. S. of the alliance over this dispute. Other calls for members to develop defense spending from building UPDs since Russia introduced its giant full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
In November, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said that the alliance exceeds its existing target of 2%, accepted through member states in 2014, calling this “simply not enough” given the threats posed through Russia on the continent, as well as those posed through China, North Korea and Iran.
During a South Carolina crusade rally in February, Trump recounted how he told the president of a NATO member state that if they fail to build their defense spending, the U. S. would not protect them and inspire Russia “to do whatever they want. “
“You can do all of that,” Trump told reporters at Tuesday’s Mar-a-Lago news conference. “But they deserve to be 5% and not 2%. “
Boot calculated that if the United States exceeded its 5% of GDP defense budget, it would have to load $ 500 billion in a higher expense.
“The U. S. defense budget is $824 billion. “Will Trump propose this, and where will the cash come from?Or is it 5% for other countries?”
According to the Atlantic Council in July, NATO’s top states have higher defense spending since Russia’s invasion, 23 of the alliance’s 32 members recently achieved the 2% threshold. Consequently, NATO in June said that collective investment in defense had a higher from 1. 43% of GDP in 2014 to 2. 02% in 2024. According to Pentagon projections, the United States will have spent 2. 7% of its GDP on defense spending by 2024.
None of the NATO’s members currently spend 5 percent of GDP on defense, the closest being Poland at just over 4 percent.
In August, Polish Finance Minister said that defense spending in the country’s 2025 budget would constitute 4.7 percent of GDP, amid growing concern that the country could be targeted by Russia.
Stuart Dee, a research leader in the Defence and Security group at RAND Europe, noted that even meeting the 2 percent target has been difficult for many NATO countries, whose economic frameworks may not accommodate additional increases.
“The United States has long been aberrant values and has an underlying and underlying much larger commercial market, which has supported without problems thanks to a holistic technique for defense exports,” he said from NewSweek. “This even accumulates in spending in some cases at 2% or beyond a challenge, however, given the position inherent in the opportunity to divert the financing of public expenses portfolios. “
Ralf Stegner, German politician and member of the German Social Democratic Party, Facebook: “Donald Trump needs to confiscate the Panama Canal and Greenland and demands 5% of GDP for the defense budgets of NATO partners. Fight more actively.
Mark Rutte, general secretary of NATO, at a convention in December: “[Trump] needs to make sure that the United States does not spend too much and that we are not doing enough, and he has everything reasonable. However, he is a success in greedy.
Stuart Dee, research leader and co-director of RAND Europe’s Centre for Defence Economics and Acquisition, told Newsweek: “There is increasingly strong consensus in the security community that the NATO 2% target for defense—which to a large extent was an arbitrary target based on end-of Cold War logic—is an unrealistic fit with the rapidly evolving international security environment…here is a growing consensus in parallel that the United States is increasingly pulled in multiple directions and thus Europe will need to secure its own future in defense terms; intelligent management of acquisition profiles will be key to ensuring that an increased funding delta is well spent.”
In December, Rutte said that NATO is “going to need a lot more than 2 percent” to counter threats posed by Russia, even arguing that states should divert spending from domestic programs to this end.
Allies, however, have pushed back against extreme increases to spending targets, with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz recently calling such ideas “half-baked,” and questioning where nations will source the additional funds needed.
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Hugh Cameron is the Newsweek Live News reporter in London, in the United Kingdom, its purpose is to inform foreign policy, conflicts and crime. Hugh joined Newsweek in 2024, after running in Alliance News Ltd, where he specialized in the Global and Regional Advertising Development Policy, Economic News and Market Trends. He graduated from the University of Warwick with a baccalaureate in politics in 2022 and the University of Cambridge with a mastery in foreign relations in 2023. Languages: English. You can touch Hugh by sending an email to h. cameron@newsweek. com
Hugh Cameron is the reporter for Newsweek Live News in London, in the United Kingdom, whose purpose is to report on foreign policy, conflicts and crime. Hugh joined Newsweek in 2024, after applying to Alliance News Ltd, where he specialized in global and regional advertising developments policy, economic news, and market trends. She graduated from the University of Warwick with a bachelor’s degree in politics in 2022 and from the University of Cambridge with a master’s degree in foreign relations in 2023. Languages: English. You can tap on Hugh by emailing h. cameron@newsweek. com