For many observers, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s speech on the future of NATO, delivered in Brussels on June 18, 2026, constituted a perfect example of how the Trump administration is angrily abandoning the longstanding U.S. commitment to European security. The prevailing picture is that the administration is eager to shift the burden of Europe’s defense and is thus moving to withdraw U.S. forces from the continent, even though Europe is moving to do more militarily. Hegseth stated, “we’re doubling down on our effort to make NATO what it always was supposed to be, a balanced alliance with Europe in the lead for its own defense,” and announced that “to ensure that NATO is moving fast and irreversibly toward Europe leading,” the administration would conduct a “real review” of “America’s force posture and basing in Europe.”
For the legions of observers deeply critical of the Trump administration’s purported embrace of isolationism, the speech was yet another lamentable event. In particular, it has left them deeply concerned about the coming NATO summit in Ankara, as they fear the United States will take further steps down the isolationist road.
The Trump administration does indeed have the wrong approach in Europe, but not because it pushes to withdraw from Europe. Rather, the real issue is that the administration is not serious about disengaging from the continent. Yes, the administration is trimming around the edges of U.S. commitments, and it is doing so punitively. But the main thrust of Trump’s policy in Europe remains an extortive exchange: trading an extension of the U.S. presence for defense spending pledges that he can celebrate as landmark achievements, even though they are of dubious strategic value. If the past is any indication, odds are that the U.S. delegation will arrive in Ankara for the forthcoming summit proclaiming the need to radically rethink the alliance and threatening a vast array of force posture changes and other adjustments, but will ultimately do little to meaningfully alter the U.S. role in European security.
Author
Events on Europe and Eurasia
