When NATO leaders adjourned the 2025 edition of their annual summit last summer, President Donald Trump emerged from the gathering with nothing but compliments for an alliance he frequently blasts as a charity case. He had reason to be gleeful. After significant pressure from the White House ahead of the summit, NATO members agreed to increase their defense spending to 5% of GDP by 2035, more than double the previous benchmark.
“When I came here, I came here because it was something I’m supposed to be doing, but I left here a little bit different, differently,” Trump told reporters at the concluding press conference. “I watched the heads of these countries get up, and the love and the passion that they showed for their country was unbelievable.”
Those heads of state and government will be lucky to survive this year’s summit with similar accolades. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, the organization’s bona-fide “Trump Whisperer,” hoped to make this year’s summit a success, but Trump is yet again souring on the alliance for all sorts of reasons. NATO is likely trending in one direction: an organization whose primary security guarantor is tired of the status quo and is leaving other members to pick up the slack.
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