During the course of his special address to the World Economic Forum in Davos on 22 January 2026, President Donald J. Trump repeated his well-known concerns about NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation), claiming that while the US would “there for them 100%… I am not sure that they would be there for us if we gave them the call.” He repeated these concerns in an interview on Fox News in Davos the following day, when he added “We’ve never needed them. They’ll say they sent some troops to Afghanistan… and they did, they stayed a little back, a little off the frontlines.” European allies have found this latter statement to be particularly insulting. Following up in a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump wrote: “Maybe we should have put NATO to the test: invoked Article 5, and forced NATO to come here and protect our southern border from further invasions of illegal immigrants.” It is worth noting, in this context, that although the Commander-in-Chief of the US Armed Forces is not required to have any military experience, critics of President Trump have sought to delegitimise his comments on the ground that he successfully dodged the draft on five occasions, yet felt empowered to describe American prisoners-of-war in Vietnam as “losers”. Furthermore, no member of the Trump family has ever served in the military.
Trump’s issues with the NATO, which has expanded to include 32 members, relate to America’s disproportionately high contributions in terms of funding, equipment, and troops to the alliance, at a time when several members have been slow to meet their financial obligations. His aggressive stance against tardy NATO member states has particular appeal to Trump’s voter base, for whom the alliance has effectively been subsidised by American taxpayers. America accounts for around two-thirds of NATO defence spending. Looking at the bigger picture, the US spent around $832.3 billion on defence, or 3.2% of its GDP, in the fiscal year 2025.
NATO was formed during the early days of the Cold War between the West and Soviet Union. On 4 April 1949, the North Atlantic Treaty, comprising 14 articles and running to just over a thousand words, was signed in Washington DC by 12 nations. The Treaty came into force on 14 August 1949, following ratification by all the founding member states. Article 5 of the Treaty requires all member states to act as one and come to the assistance of any NATO member in the event of it is subjected to an armed attack, “in exercise of the right of individual or collective self-defence required by Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations.” Collective defence is a core defining feature of NATO, and “an attack on member is an attack on the entire alliance.” Article 5 obliges all member states in Europe and North America to provide mutual assistance as and when required. An “armed attack” is defined on a case-by-case basis, and may include cyberattacks and hybrid attacks, but not domestic terrorism. Responses to an armed attack may include “the use of armed force, to restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area.”
Article 5 has only been triggered just once, following the 9/11 terrorist attacks on American soil, when NATO came to assist America on its own initiative in a gesture of solidarity. Despite Trump’s contentions to the contrary, NATO member states have actively contributed to American military actions abroad. For example, the NATO-led invasion of Afghanistan saw 1,160 deaths among coalition forces, including 457 for the UK (the second-highest number), to 2, 461 American deaths. Denmark has been rebuked by Trump over the Greenland issue, yet Danish fatalities in Afghanistan amounted to 43-the highest per capita losses among the coalition forces. Far greater numbers of combat troops sustained life-changing injuries during the same conflict.
Defence is a costly business. The effective functioning of NATO requires adequate funds. The alliance is financed by its member states, in the form of direct contributions to common-funded budgets, programmes, and capabilities, under a cost-sharing formula, and indirect contributions that are determined by each contributor’s Gross National Income. The Russia- Ukraine conflict has galvanised NATO efforts to boost its defences. NATO leaders agreed upon a Defence Investment Pledge at the meeting of the North Atlantic Council in Newport, Wales on 4 and 5 September 2014, whereby at least 2% of GDP annually would be spent on defence by all members by 2024.This commitment was further endorsed at the North Atlantic Council meeting in Vilnius on 11 and 12 July 2023. Under pressure from President Trump, NATO members committed at the NATO Summit in The Hague on 24 and 25 June 2025 to spend at least 3.5% of GDP annually on core defence requirements and to meet NATO Capability Targets, with an additional 1.5% of GDP towards “protecting critical infrastructure, defending networks, ensuring civil preparedness and resilience… and strengthening (our) defence industrial base.”
NATO does not have its own armed forces, and member states contribute troops and equipment voluntarily. Members of the alliance are not required to automatically participate in an operation or mission that has been sanctioned by the North Atlantic Council, NATO’s top political decision-making authority, unless it meets the criteria of a collective defence operation under Article 5.
The international order is under challenge as never before, as President Trump appears to be abandoning the transatlantic alliance in favour of his bespoke arrangements for strengthening America’s national security, disadvantaging allies who have benefited from the security umbrella of America’s massive firepower. Europe will have to become more self-sufficient with regards to its own defences, including enhanced security in the Arctic. “Shared values of individual liberty, human rights, democracy, and the rule of law” are under threat. We live in uncertain times, with constantly shifting goalposts, making it impossible to hazard even an educated guess as to where we might find ourselves a year hereafter.
Ashis Banerjee