Europe Wins Over Trump on Defense With NATO Spending Boost

NATO leaders agreed to increase defense spending to 5% of GDP and renewed their “ironclad commitment” to mutual security in an historic move to push back against an increasingly belligerent Russia.

The decision from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s 32 members at their high-stakes summit in The Hague is a major win for Donald Trump, who has repeatedly lambasted his European allies for underspending on security. But it was also a victory for his European allies and the alliance’s secretary general, Mark Rutte, who had worked for months to ensure the US renewed its Article 5 commitments on collective defense.