Trump has threatened to abandon NATO over defence spending, but how correct is his criticism?

As the leaders of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) gathered in Washington DC to mark its 75 years, US President Joe hailed it as the most important alliance in the world. In sharp contrast, former President Donald Trump termed the NATO member-states “delinquent” and slammed them for not spending enough on their militaries.

This is not the first time Trump has railed against NATO. While he has been an unabashed critic of the bloc from his presidential days, he announced in February that he would allow Russia to attack NATO allies if they would not hike their defence spending to his liking.

Trump’s main contention is that the United States is bankrolling the NATO and the European security. He has accused European nations part of NATO of taking undue advantage of the US resources and has claimed that the burden of funding the bloc falls on the United States disproportionately. The criticism has increased since the Russian invasion of Ukraine as he has been saying European allies should fund Ukrainian war efforts more.

While every American president in recent decades has urged allies to spend more and spending has indeed increased more, Trump is the first one to say he would allow Russia to attack allies and the only one known to come close to quitting the bloc.

What are Trump’s issues with NATO?

All member-states of NATO are expected to spend at least 2 per cent of their gross domestic product (GDP) on defence. Trump has repeatedly said over the years that allies are not following this spending target.

Trump has also claimed that the allies owe money to the United States for security provided under the framework of NATO.

“Many of these nations owe massive amounts of money from past years and not paying in those past years,” said Trump in 2017.

When he was in office, Trump also claimed that the disproportionate US spending within NATO was not fair to American taxpayers.

Moreover, Trump has lately echoed the Russian line on Ukraine that it was NATO’s misconstrued policy that led to the conflict. As per the Russian reasoning, it is the expansionist NATO that forced Russia to take military action. In June, Trump said that the NATO’s promise of membership to Ukraine was a mistake and it was “really why this war started”.

As Biden was hosting NATO leaders in Washington DC, Trump in a post on his social media platform Truth Social said Europe owed the United States “100 bullion” regarding the support to Ukraine. He also took credit for the survival of NATO and said there would be no NATO today if not for him.

“The U.S. is paying most of the money to help Ukraine fight Russia. Europe should at least EQUALIZE! They owe more than 100 Billion to do so. Crooked Joe has never even asked them to do so (sic),” said Trump in a post.

In a rally that took place while the NATO leaders were in Washington DC, Trump further said, “I didn’t know what the hell NATO was too much before, but it didn’t take me long to figure it out, like about two minutes. And the first thing I figured out was they were not paying. We were paying, we were paying almost fully for NATO. And I said that’s unfair.”

Underscoring the contrast between the worldview and personalities of the two men, while Trump derided NATO, Biden hailed the alliance it the “bulwark of global security”.

“The fact that NATO remains the bulwark of global security did not happen by accident. It wasn’t inevitable. Again and again, at critical moments, we chose unity over disunion, progress over retreat, freedom over tyranny and hope over fear. Again and again, we stood behind our shared vision of a peaceful and prosperous trans-Atlantic community,” said Biden.

How correct is Trump’s tirade against NATO?

The financial aspects of NATO’s functioning are at the core of Trump’s issues with the bloc. He has said that the United States is paying disproportionately and other members are not paying “obligations”. But is that really the case? Not exactly.

The oft-cited 2 per cent defence spending target is not enshrined in NATO’s rules but is merely an aspirational target, according to The New York Times.

Moreover, NATO members are not supposed to pay the United States. NATO does not have a standing military so they do not have to pay to fund a central military. Instead, they have to spend on their own militaries. The member countries deploy personnel from their respective militaries under the command of NATO in Europe. There is no central military as such.

The Times noted that the NATO has a budget to cover common civilian and military costs and only some assets are owned by NATO and are funded from this budget. Otherwise, rest of all assets and personnel are funded by respective countries as part of spending on their own militaries. The newspaper further reported in 2017 that none of the NATO allies were falling short on contributing to the budget for commonly-funded assets.

Additionally, Trump is incorrect to say that the NATO members owe money to the United States regarding NATO.

“This is not a matter of members failing to pay dues. The allies arguably may have less capable militaries than they should have, but none of them owe anyone anything,” noted Peter Baker of The Times.

Contrary to Trump’s claim that he is the only American president to raise the issue of spending, most president in recent decades, including immediate predecessors Barak Obama and George W Bush, have urged NATO partners to increase their defence spending.

The only point where Trump is correct is that the extent of American defence spending takes away funds that could be spent elsewhere. Experts have long said that the higher standards of living in European countries are partially creditable to the security guarantees that they enjoy from the United States, which allows them to spend more on development programmes and less on defence as the United States is paying to cover their security needs as well.