The Trump administration is right to push European allies to urgently spend significantly more on defense. It should also be noted that tentative but significant moves by European powers to increase defense spending would not have occurred had Trump not retaken office. President Donald Trump’s Defense Department team further deserves praise for refocusing U.S. military assets away from Europe and the Middle East to the Pacific (though tensions with Iran/the Houthis in Yemen risk undermining this effort).
Still, if the administration is to successfully persuade allies to do more for their own defense, it has to do so in a manner that is both fair and respectful. Unfortunately, it failed that test on Thursday.
Immediately complicating matters was the administration’s vote against a U.N. resolution condemning Russia for its invasion of Ukraine. To be clear, this vote and other actions like it do nothing to move the negotiating ball toward a viable peace. They only make Trump look weak to Vladimir Putin and thus encourage the Russian president to keep doing exactly what he’s now doing. Which is to say, refusing to agree to the ceasefire that Ukraine agreed to over a month ago. Moreover, if Trump cannot even condemn the most serious land invasion in Europe since 1945, it’s hard to see why European allies would trust him on other matters.
That leads us into Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s visit to the White House on Thursday. Meloni is a much more pro-American nationalist ally to Trump than is the Chinese Communist Party prostitute, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Both leaders suggested on Thursday that they wish to use their close relationship to help reach a U.S. trade deal with the European Union. That’s a good thing.
What is not good, however, is the fact that Italy continues to woefully neglect its defense spending obligations under NATO. Like all NATO allies, Italy pledged in 2014 to move toward NATO’s 2%-of-gross domestic product minimum defense expenditure target. Unfortunately, Italy spent just 1.49% of GDP on defense in 2024. That meant Europe’s fourth-largest economy was the sixth-lowest percentage-of-GDP defense spender out of NATO’s 32 member states. Even more embarrassing, Italy recently pushed to use budget gimmicks to move closer to the 2%-of-GDP target. New claims that Italy might reach the 2% target this year are highly fanciful.
There’s a trend here. Indeed, only this week, Italian defense minister Guido Crosetto indirectly but unashamedly argued that the U.S. should continue to bear the outsize weight of NATO’s defense. Describing Trump’s criticisms of European defense expenditures, Crosetto observed, “Rationally it makes sense, but for the budget of our nations it is unthinkable. European countries cannot touch welfare and social achievements.” Translation: American taxpayers should subsidize our defense so we can throw more money at “welfare and social achievements.”
Unfortunately, because he likes Meloni, Trump appears to be swallowing this Italian evasion hook, line and sinker. When Meloni was asked about Italy’s deficient defense spending on Thursday, Trump appeared unconcerned. He responded in a relaxed manner, “It will go up, it will go up.” Trump then laughed and joked, “It’s never enough.” This joviality sends the message to Italy that it can continue to skimp off the back of the U.S. military, including gaining economic benefits via its hosting of numerous U.S. military bases, without consequence. That’s bad for NATO and thus also bad for America.
Further undermining U.S. credibility on European defense spending issues, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth then took a very different stance towards America’s oldest ally on Thursday. Following a meeting with the French defense minister at the Pentagon, Hegseth posted, “Excellent meeting today with my French counterpart, Minister of the Armed Forces Sébastien Lecornu. We discussed the imperative need for Europeans to meet a 5% defense spending commitment to restore deterrence with ready, lethal conventional forces.”
Two problems immediately arise.
First, on what planet would France agree to spend 5% of GDP on defense when the U.S. spends less than 4% of GDP on defense, and Italy just received a same-day presidential free pass for spending less than 2% of GDP on defense? Hegseth’s post, the basic premise of which is entirely justified and necessary, looks wholly unserious in this context. Equally problematic is the lecturing tone that belies a sense of disdain for historic but still important allies. Why couldn’t Hegseth say “the imperative need for European allies to meet,” for example?
True, France is too close to Communist China. True, France has skimped on defense spending for too long, preferring to lecture America with Gaullist arrogance. But France is now taking a new lead alongside the United Kingdom for European security, and for increased defense spending in service of that agenda. It is also true that below the surface of public attention, the French navy cooperates very closely in very politically sensitive ways with its American counterpart.
PUTIN’S CHRISTIAN NATIONALIST MIRAGE
These are not things that should be taken for granted.
So while France deserves scrutiny over its engagement with China (and the industrial espionage of its excellent DGSE foreign intelligence service), it also deserves gratitude for the real steps it is taking to bolster NATO and Western security. Similarly, while Meloni deserves credit for her leadership and we should welcome her cooperation with Trump, Italy should not get a defense spending free pass simply on that basis.
Put another way, the Trump administration is right to push urgent defense spending increases on the part of America’s allies. But it needs to get its messaging in better shape. Its current strategy carries little credibility, deserves little confidence, and will earn deficient responses.