USA News: Reactions to Trump’s demand for defense spending – “Don’t be fooled”

The first reactions can be heard from European politicians to President-elect Donald Trump’s statement that NATO countries should spend five percent of gross domestic product (GDP) on defense. The FDP defense expert Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann considers the demand to be excessive – but also calls for higher spending on defense. “We shouldn’t be fooled by every statement Trump makes. We are not at a bazaar here,” the MEP told the Editorial Network Germany (RND). However, the USA rightly expected that NATO members would spend more money on defense, said Strack-Zimmermann. The current editions are not sufficient, but one should not “just put a number in the room with the help of a thumb”. So far, the partner countries are supposed to invest two percent of their GDP in defense.

The chairman of the Defense Committee, Marcus Faber, also told the RDN: “The 32 NATO states will have to agree on a new common minimum beyond the two percent target.” But that would be “more like three percent than five percent. And that will be decided by consensus,” emphasized Faber.

SPD foreign policy expert Ralf Stegner called the five percent target “complete madness.” “We don’t need more weapons in the world, we need fewer,” he told the news portal Politico. “Then you could also abolish democracy directly if you no longer need democratic majorities for the defense budget.”

Defense spending was already a central point of contention during Trump’s first term in office. At that time, the Republican threatened that the USA would withdraw from NATO if the partner countries did not fulfill their obligation and invest at least two percent of GDP in defense.