How Donald Trump Gets NATO Payment

The headquarters of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Brussels’ eight crisscrossing glass and steel wings, designed to resemble a set of interlocking fingers, is a reference to what its architects call “the unity of all nations in one common space.” Internally, the allocation of this space reflects certain geopolitical realities. The only member of the alliance, the nine-member delegation of Iceland, occupied six offices. France has whole flooring. There are two in Germany. The U.S. mission staff has more than 200 employees, representing a global force deployed in nearly 150 countries, occupying the entire five-story wing.

One morning this spring, on an outdoor sidewalk leading to the building’s public square, I passed a twisted rust steel, a remnant of the World Trade Center North Tower, which was collected after the 2001 terrorist attack. NATO Known as the “9/11” and “Article 5” memorials, it is proof of the only instance in the history of the Union, whose leaders invoked the collective defense clause in their founding charter. Article 5 is the core principle of the alliance, he said: “The parties agree that armed attacks on one or more of them in Europe or North America are considered as attacks on all.” In the next twenty years, twenty-nine non-US ones were not considered as attacks on all.” NATO The army deployed soldiers to Afghanistan, with more than a thousand dead.

when NATO The building was officially unveiled in 2017, as recently elected U.S. President Donald Trump delivered a dedication speech to the 5th memorial. During his presidential campaign, he caught a fact, though NATO Members have committed to spending 2% of their GDP on defense, with only five of them hitting the target. Trump called the situation “unfair”, saying at a rally: “We are protecting a country that most people in this room have never even heard of.” In Brussels, he signaled “the promise to tie us together,” but never explicitly confirmed Article 5. NATO Build yourself. “All of these glasses – one shot from a tank and the whole thing would collapse,” recalled John Bolton, who was Trump’s national security adviser at the time.

In 2022, after Russia invaded Ukraine, NATO Russia was formally identified as “the most direct threat to the security of allies and to peace and stability in the European-Atlantic region”. In response, its members promised additional defense spending and deployed tens of thousands of troops to make what the coalition calls its eastern side-nationals near the Russian border. The United States alone moved another 20,000 soldiers to Europe. But Trump often expresses his views on Russian aggression, sometimes even seemingly treating Russian President Vladimir Putin, a potential companion rather than a threat. During last year’s campaign, he suggested that if NATO In the case of Russian attacks, allies’ commitment to defense will not provide military support. “I encourage them to do whatever they want,” he said of Russia. “You don’t pay your bills, you don’t have any protection. It’s simple.”

Since returning to the president, Trump has been significantly rewriting the terms of the U.S. commitment to European security. Now, he is pushing member states to use 5% of their GDP for defense. February, during the visit NATOHis defense minister, Pete Hegseth, said European leaders “should bear the primary responsibility for defending the African continent.” This spring, NBC News reported that the Trump administration is preparing to move most of the U.S. troops stationed in Europe to Asia and elsewhere, and may not be able to fill the highest ally of Europe or Saceur,,,,, NATOAmericans have been held by Americans since the founding of the alliance.

Former Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen NATOThe Secretary-General from 2009 to 2014 told me that the alliance was in a “moment of existence”, comparable to the end of the Cold War. Until now, he said, “the tectonic plates that move under our feet are first and foremost Washington, D.C.”

Trump’s chief interlocutor NATO It is its current secretary-general, Mark Rutte, who worked in the job in October fourteen years after the Dutch Prime Minister. Rutte is fifty-eight years old, wearing frameless glasses, a part of the cross section and a wide smile of a politician. He has long cultivated his image as a modest and diligent civil servant. Upon arrival in Brussels, he refused to live in a large townhouse, serving as the residence of the Secretary-General since the 190s, preferring to stay in apartments elsewhere in the city and use the official residence for meetings and receptions. Rutte’s relationship with Trump is gained by his instinct for cautious disagreements and diplomatic skills. One of his advisers told me that the Secretary-General believes his primary responsibility is to “keep the family together.” “It’s a family member that we all need to be safe,” the U.S. adviser continued.

Rutte agreed to talk to me in the townhouse this spring as he was preparing to meet with Kaja Kallas, the top EU diplomat. I sat with him on the cream sofa in the sunny room facing the garden. A series of cookies are listed; the coffee is poured in a silver glass bottle. I asked Rutte how he planned to satisfy a U.S. president who seemed to mock the whole concept of collective security. As usual, Rutte is full of energy. In his work of deceiving oneself (“I always smile at myself when someone calls me Secretary General – this is usually a title reserved for Communist parties”), he has repeated a line he has used several times over the past few months. He assured me that Trump is completely committed to NATO. ”

He continued, the president was just saying what Rat himself often told NATOMember States: “If we want to protect threats and opponents like Putin, China, North Korea or Iran, then we have to spend more money.” Rutt said Washington’s pressure was an “opportunity” NATO Members build defense capabilities that have been neglected for decades. “There is a realization in Europe that we have to change the burden between what the United States is doing and what Europeans can do more.”

In late June, Rutte will host NATO The leader of the Hague, his hometown. The main theme will be new goals for defense spending, but European leaders hope Americans can clarify their commitment to the alliance. At official residence, I told Ritter that many of them expressed concerns about the speed and scale of the Trump administration’s possible connection to European forces. “We agree with the White House, and there will be no surprises,” he said. “We will do it in a structured way.” He added: “I am not responsible for everyone’s anxiety. I can take them into consideration, but I’m not led by them.”

Nevertheless, Rutte tried to minimize dramatic opportunities at the summit, while the tour would remain short-lived, while the final communique stated that the conclusion was an agreed conclusion that would be limited to a few paragraphs. The narrow focus is Rutte acknowledges the risks of changing the world. “This will be the most important thing NATO The top of the mountain since the fall of the Berlin Wall. “He said. “In Trump’s language, ‘huge’.” transparent

After World War II, the idea of ​​establishing a defensive alliance with the United States and Europe began to permeate. European cities have been destroyed and their populations have been dispersed. The entire economy is on the verge of collapse. However, throughout the Atlantic Ocean, the United States has become Europe’s de facto hegemony. In 1946, Winston Churchill talked about the United States as “the pinnacle of world power”, and this position carries “a awesome responsibility for the future.”

The following year, President Harry Truman outlined the principles known as Truman’s doctrine, calling for “the United States to support free people who resist armed minorities or external pressures.” The Soviet Union installed client regimes in Eastern Europe for very little time amid the confusion and wreckage left by the war. Truman hopes that with the help of US military and economic support, a broken war continent can achieve both peace and stop the Communist Party. General Hastings Isma, Churchill’s chief military adviser during the war NATOThe first secretary-general was considered to capture the Alliance’s original goal: “Shall the Soviet Union, the Americans and the Germans out.”