President Donald Trump claimed credit Thursday for reinvigorating the NATO alliance, a day after he threw a gathering of U.S. allies into turmoil by upbraiding member countries over defense spending and singling out Germany for the harshest criticism.On Wednesday, the first day of a two-day summit of NATO allies, Trump publicly slammed Germany as a ''captive to Russia," prompting a terse retort from German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Later, in a closed-door meeting, Trump demanded that NATO allies double their defense spending to 4 percent of gross domestic product.
But as the Brussels summit wrapped up, Trump said that after pressuring European countries to step up their contributions to NATO, he received pledges for increased defense spending. The claim that was later disputed by other NATO leaders.
"So now we're very happy and have a very powerful, very, very strong NATO. More powerful than it was two days ago," he told a news conference Thursday before leaving Brussels en route to the United Kingdom.
French President Emmanuel Macron pointed to previous commitments NATO members had made to increase defense spending by 2024.
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05.19.2025