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I love Trump but we’re going on a while now.

Why are they still paying so little towards NATO?

Is it a threat we can’t make because we need to be there?

Do we contribute separately to NATO or is it in our defense budget?

confused.

How does giving less to NATO affect us and them and where?

thanks for any who can answer.

The members of NATO pay a share of NATO’s administrative operating costs, but this is not what Trump is talking about. All members made a commitment to pay at least 2% of their GDP on defense, I.e., their defense budgets. It is money they spend on their own military. It is not a contribution of funds to NATO.

Poland wants us there, and most of Central Europe. The average Brit wants us there, but May’s government not so much.

Western Europe could care less. The Nords are coming around. They’ve had it with Muslims.

As long as we’re willing to deal with their tariffs, our free money, and the fact they’ve thrown in with the Russians, they’ll continue to abuse the relationship.

Power abhors a vacuum.

NATO members agreed to pay certain percentages of their defense spending and they are welching of that and on their contributions to the NATO budget.

I think only five other countries are living up to their pledge. NATO is of use to us for example it has 14,000 troops in Afghanistan.

Us giving less to NATO means less of a financial burden on the taxpayer.

NATO budget in itself is actually insignificant. NATO has an office building and I think 7 AWACS planes. In 2014 NATO summit all countries agreed to bring their defense spending to at least 2% of the GDP by 2024. In current year only 8 countries have reached it and there are slackers like Germany and Canada who are large countries spending too little. New Italian government is also doing weird things talking about cancelling their F-35 purchase, that they have already paid for, but maybe this is just a mishap of inexperienced Prime Minister as this makes absolutely no sense.

It’s not about giving less U.S money to support NATO. Trump is putting pressure on the EU “allies” (I use the term loosely) to justify why America should continue to bear the lion’s share of the cost. We provide almost 70% of the NATO budget every year. Meanwhile, Germany contributes less than the statutory 2% of GDP required, even though it has run a surplus every year since 1951!

Do we need to remain in NATO? Maybe, but the reasons are becoming less compelling than during the pre-Cold War years. Meanwhile, we have younger, republic-minded allies like Poland and Hungary that remember all too well what is was like to live undef Russian occupation.

What Trump is attempting is to salvage to old EU from itself. If he can’t, it will be time to refocus our European partnerships away from the Western Continent and forge new alliances. Not unlike what he is doing in the Middle East by bringing Egypt, the Saudis and Israel together to oppose Iran’s regional hegemony. Hard to believe that a bombastic billionaire from Queens with no prior political experience could exert such influence, yet here we are