U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday he was not sure the United States should be spending anything on NATO, telling reporters the U.S. was protecting NATO members, but they were "not protecting us.

Europe’s military heavyweights have already said that meeting President Donald Trump’s potential challenge to spend up to 5% of their economic output on security would be challenging

President Donald Trump said NATO countries must sharply increase their defense spending, demanding member states push beyond current benchmarks that many of them already struggle to hit.

European countries have ramped up defense budgets since Russia's all-out invasion of Ukraine in 2022. And many leaders have said the increased spending must continue to counter the growing military threat from Moscow.

United States President Donald Trump on3 said that he was not sure America should be spending anything on NATO, telling reporters that the US was protecting NATO members, but they were "not protecting us" Trump repeated demands that other members of the transatlantic alliance spend 5% of their gross domestic product (GDP) on defence – a huge increase from the current 2% goal and a level that no NATO country,

The return of Trump will once again put European defense spending levels at the center of the United States’ approach to NATO. Over the past several years, NATO members have boosted investments, with about 20 out of 32 members hitting the alliance’s benchmark of spending 2% of gross domestic product on defense.

US President Donald Trump has asked all NATO nations to increase their defence spending to 5 per cent of their GDP.