Donald Trump is doing a victory dance. He had demanded that NATO members pay dues of 2% (I had no problem with demanding NATO members pay their share), and now they agreed to 5% (all but Spain, now threatened by Trump with tariffs). Does Trump deserve credit? Yes, but not exactly for the way you might think. He had cajolled NATO members since his first term, teased them that he would not support them if invaded, and they did get the average up to 2% with significant holdouts.. However, it was not until the Oval Office ambush of Zelensky and where clearly Trump took Putin's side, and Trump failed to persuade Putin to negotiate a ceasefire in Ukraine, that they agreed to the 5% at the meeting this week. (3.5 for military and 1.5 for related expenses).
So give Trump credit. Now that he "won," forcing NATO to pay its fair share plus, he still will not firmly commit to Article 5 (the attack on one member is an attack on all) though he hinted at it, and he still has not yet committed to sending Ukraine the needed missile defense and other weapons Congress wants to fund. Hopefully, now, he will have an excuse to do both. His self-imposed demand of 2% has been met and more than doubled. No more excuses, please. And no more thinking he can charm Putin. Putin only understands power. and NATO just delivered that message to him. As always with Trump, look at what he does, not what he says. He will get blowback from MAGA isolationists, and hope he does not TACO.
The real reason Europe at the NATO summit upped the goal to 5%? Europe does not trust Trump to support Ukraine, and they are going to try to do it themselves, even if Trump walks. (Tough to do because the US has some strategic weapons they need that they cannot produce themselves) It had become clear 1) the US is not a reliable NATO member to provide aid to Ukraine; 2) if Ukraine fell to Russia, they all would be destabilized and may have to go to war.
FYI. Trump's BS about the 2 to 5%. That is not dues to NATO. That is a commitment of member nations to allocate that percent of their GDP (gross domestic product) to their own military defense. The US contributes 4%.
One holdout had been Germany, and now Germany is gung-ho to rearm with a committed new chancellor, Friedrich Merz. Germany's public opinion against militarism after the shame of WWII, reversed itself, having disbanded the old Wehrmacht and had begun rearming, but now in high gear much thanks to the unintended consequences of the Oval Office ambush. This occurred in the midst of the German national elections this spring, contributing to Merz's rise to the chancellorship.
The isolationists are still at the defense gate, and still have on their agenda the pulling out of Europe US forces stationed there. Careful .. Let us not be as stupid as we once were. So long as once and now neo cold warrior Putin is driving his goal to reassemble the old Soviet Union satellites into his new Russian empire, these ideologues are as smart as the American Firsters and isolationist of the 1930's...and we know where that got us.. WWII. Isolationism was perceived by our enemies as a sign of weakness, a favorable time to attack us or our allies.. The Major Trump Question Left Unanswered at NATO Summit - Newsweek
https://www.npr.org/2025/06/26/nx-s1-5445845/trump-nato-summit
https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2025/03/the-backfire-to-on-camera-trumpvance.html
https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2025/06/germanys-rearmament-is-spurred-on.html
https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2025/03/trumps-epic-miscalculation-on-ukraine.html
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