Ten years ago this month, Donald Trump clinched the Republican nomination for president, with a platform that was vastly different on trade and foreign policy from other recent presidents, Republican and Democratic alike. In some important ways, things have moved in Trump’s direction. In 2016 and since, he complained constantly that Europeans were not contributing their fair share to NATO. That had been the position of previous administrations, but none emphasized it as Trump did.
Early in his first term, only five NATO allies met the stated goal of spending 2% of GDP on defense. A decade later, the goal has risen to 5%, and most NATO allies are moving toward that goal.
Ten years later, most NATO nations have significantly increased defense spending as a share of GDP. Some are nudging up to Trump’s latest goal of 5% — more than the United States spends. Now, in his second term, the goal is up to 5%, and most NATO members are moving in that direction.
And as Russian President Vladimir Putin has threatened his neighbors, previously neutral (for nearly 75 years!) Finland and Sweden, with their highly competent militaries, have decided to join NATO and have made the Baltic Sea just beyond Putin’s hometown of St. Petersburg a NATO lake.
