MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Trump suggests expelling Spain from NATO
Spain is the “one laggard” having “no excuse” for this resistance, Trump argued US President Donald Trump suggested that Spain should be expelled from NATO for failing to commit to the alliance's newly increased defense spending target.
Speaking in the Oval Office alongside Finnish President Alexander Stubb, Trump boasted that he secured an “almost unanimous” commitment from NATO members at the June summit to raise their defense spending target to 5% of GDP annually by 2035, and singled out Spain as the “one laggard” having “no excuse” for this resistance. “Maybe you should throw them out of NATO, frankly,” Trump explicitly mentioned.
The new 5% target replaces the alliance's former 2% goal, breaking down into 3.5% for core defense and 1.5% for areas like infrastructure and cybersecurity. Spain currently allocates the lowest share of GDP to defense among NATO members, at around 1.2% to 1.3%.
In Madrid, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez pointed out that he secured an exemption for his country, whereby it would not need to meet the 5% threshold. Spain proposed a more modest target of 2.1% of GDP by the end of the year. Sánchez further stated that any greater spending increase would necessitate hundreds of millions in cuts to public services. “Spain is a member of NATO in full right and is committed to NATO. It fulfills its targets just as the US does,” insisted the head of Government.
In addition, Spanish Defense Minister Margarita Robles had previously dismissed the 5% target as “absolutely impossible,” arguing that European defense industries lack the necessary skilled labor and raw materials to expand production to meet such a demand.
Despite Trump's pressure on allies, US contributions to NATO as a percentage of GDP have actually fallen over the past decade (from 3.7% to 3.2% of GDP from 2014 to 2024). However, the US remains by far the alliance's largest contributor, spending nearly double the rest of the treaty members combined.
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Read all commentsThe US isn't even spending 3.2% of GDP on NATO related defense.The North Atlantic part is probably less than 1.6%.
Oct 10th, 2025 - 11:48 pm +2The US military expenditure also pays for it’s hundreds of bases world wide, in North America, Central America, South America, the Middle East, Asia, Africa, Oceania, created to protect its own interests, add the US military industrial complex, and don't forget the huge US Navy moving all over the oceans.
The United States world wide engagements, the many bases and the navy, are there to protect US’s interests, much of it far from the North Atlantic.
Trump has a point here; Spain is freeloading. They may not be on the front line but when some years back the Moroccans occupied some uninhabited Spanish Islands off the coast of N. Africa, they had to get the Americans to get them to leave, they lacked the capability to do it themselves.
Oct 12th, 2025 - 03:00 pm 02.1% against a target of 5% overall is woefully inadequate and not what is required from a full NATO member, they should shape up or ship out.
As for ‘European defence industries lack the necessary’, well that is what the 1.5% for defence related infrastructure is for, hence the British spending £1.5B on building six new munitions factories.
And yes, the US is now more focused on the Pacific and regions other than the N. Atlantic, which is why Europe must now ‘step up to the plate’ and take responsibility for defending itself and not rely on the US.
The US still spends more on defence than the rest of the world combined.
Europe’s population is five times that of Russia’s with an economy more than twelve times bigger than Russia’s. For every 1% of GDP Europe spends on defence Russia must spend over 10% just to keep up.
Five years from now Europe need to be able to supply a country like Ukraine will all it needs to fight a war against Russia, without any help from the US and this is entirely doable.
US contribution to the NATO budget is 13% i believe, or it was up until recently last time i checked, however some European countries do need to step up,
Oct 12th, 2025 - 09:54 pm 0Commenting for this story is now closed.
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