“Trump may not be able to withdraw American from NATO, but he will get members to pay up.”
Article 5 has a huge weasel out phrase: each member state is to assist by taking “such action as [the member state] deems necessary”. Which means, as usual, it will be the USA alone. All those other pipsqueaks (except maybe Poland) will be useless.
A number of the NATO countries are now paying the recommended 3%, and some have even increased their budget to 4%.
Yes, true. But the member states ‘pledged’ at the time they’d work for the 2% as a goal. So, if their (for the ones NOT meeting the goal) ‘pledges’ are no good, then what are the rest of their machinations worth?