AsianFin -- U.S. President Donald Trump expressed uncertainty on Thursday about whether the United States should continue spending on NATO, telling reporters that while the U.S. is protecting NATO members, they are "not protecting us."
Trump reiterated his call for other NATO countries to increase their defense spending to 5% of their GDP, a significant jump from the current 2% target, which no NATO country, including the U.S., currently meets.
"I'm not sure we should be spending anything, but we should certainly be helping them," Trump told reporters after signing an executive order in the Oval Office. "We're protecting them. They're not protecting us." "They should up their 2% to 5%," he said, repeating his remarks earlier to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Washington contributes 15.8% of NATO's annual budget, which is around $3.5 billion—jointly the largest share, along with Germany, according to a NATO breakdown for 2024.
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