Trump Takes Victory Lap After NATO Agrees To 5% GDP Military Spending
Charlie Kirk Staff
06/25/2025

NATO leaders on Wednesday threw their support behind a plan to boost defense spending to 5 percent of GDP by 2035 — a massive win for President Donald Trump, who has long pushed for so-called “freeloading” allies to finally pay their fair share for their own defense.
According to Reuters, nearly every NATO member backed the new target, with the lone exceptions being Spain and possibly Slovakia. A formal signing is expected before the conference wraps up Wednesday.
The new goal more than doubles NATO’s current 2 percent spending target.
Under the plan, 3.5 percent would go toward traditional military spending — things like air defenses and recruitment — while the remaining 1.5 percent could cover infrastructure such as roads and bridges that would support troop movements.
“There is absolute conviction with my colleagues at the table that, given this threat from the Russians, given the international security situation, there is no alternative,” NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said.
Finnish President Alexander Stubb, whose country shares a border with Russia, called the move “the birth of a new NATO, which means a more balanced NATO and a NATO which has more European responsibility.”
Spain openly defied the new goal, insisting it does not need to meet the target and would instead spend much less — a move that sparked outrage from fellow leaders, including Rutte.
“We fully respect the legitimate desire of other countries to increase their defense investment, but we are not going to do it,” Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said. Spain spent just 1.28 percent of its GDP on defense in 2024 — the lowest in NATO.
Slovakia also appears ready to reject the new commitment. “Our country has other priorities in the coming years than armament,” said Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico.
Poland, which currently spends the highest percentage of GDP on defense in the alliance, strongly criticized Spain’s refusal to get on board.
“We believe that any deviation from this principle by any member country is a bad example,” Polish Deputy Prime Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz said before heading to the summit.
“It’s incredibly unfair to the alliance,” another NATO official told POLITICO.
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