Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth flew into a NATO meeting in Brussels on Thursday with a warning and a stopwatch. He announced a six-month "NATO 3.0" review of the US military footprint in Europe and suggested some allies would fail, accusing unnamed members of enjoying a "free ride" on American security guarantees and putting limits on support during the war with Iran. The Trump administration already has decided to dial back the US role in NATO's high-readiness force, such as trimming air and naval assets, the BBC reports, and Hegseth said future contributions to NATO budgets would hinge on whether allies hit agreed-upon goals for defense spending.
NATO members have pledged to put 5% of GDP toward defense-related costs by 2035, including 3.5% on core military spending. NATO chief Mark Rutte countered that European defense outlays jumped by more than $100 billion last year and said allies are "backfilling" some of what the US is cutting. Strains in NATO are showing, per the BBC: The UK arrived without a finalized investment plan, the US has threatened or moved troop cuts in Germany and Poland, and tensions flared with Spain over access to bases for Iran operations. Allies are due to present detailed spending plans at a July summit in Ankara.
"For too long, NATO has been a paper tiger and a one-way street. No more," Hegseth told the room of defense ministers at the alliance's headquarters, per the Washington Post. He extended his critique of modern Europe by adding: "Instead of tanks and fighters and air defenses, the focus has been on gender equity and climate change and defense austerity. Europe's borders flew wide open, welfare states expanded, defense budgets cratered, along with Europe's belief in itself and its civilization."
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