Trump has said members of the military alliance should spend 5% of their gross domestic product (GDP) on defence – a huge increase from the current 2% goal and a level that no NATO country, including the United States, currently achieves. Copyright 2025 Thomson Reuters.

I’m also going to ask all NATO nations to increase defense spending to 5% of [gross domestic product], which is what it should have been years ago,” he said in remarks given virtually to the. He noted that “most nations didn’t pay until I came along” in his first term in office.