The North Atlantic Treaty Organization has long served as a frequent target of criticism from President Trump.
During rallies and interviews, he has consistently reproached alliance members for inadequate military expenditures, dismissed their armed forces as underpowered, and hinted that the United States might withhold defense commitments if they were attacked.
As NATO leaders gathered in Ankara, Turkey, on Tuesday for their annual summit, Trump again scolded allies for failing to support the U.S. military campaign against Iran. “Italy turned us down, and Germany turned us down, and France turned us down,” he stated. “And in a way, I was testing people.”
The following is a summary of some notable instances where Trump publicly confronted NATO allies over the years.
Military Spending
‘I’m very unhappy with Spain.’
Trump has often derided member nations as “delinquent” for falling short on defense budgets, framing them as free riders who unfairly profit from Washington’s “one-way” security guarantees.
In 2018, he described Americans as “the schmucks that are paying for the whole thing.” Last year, after Spain became the sole NATO member to reject a substantial boost in military funding, Trump labeled the nation a “laggard” and floated the idea of retaliatory tariff hikes.
“I’m very unhappy with Spain,” Trump said in October. “I was thinking of giving them trade punishment through tariffs because of what they did.”
This past March, when Madrid denied U.S. aircraft access to its bases for the U.S.–Israeli war on Iran, Trump escalated his rhetoric by threatening to terminate all trade with Spain.
To date, neither threat has been enacted.
Collective Defense
Russia should ‘do whatever the hell they want.’
Trump has repeatedly cast doubt on a foundational NATO principle: Article 5 of the treaty, which mandates that an attack on one member be treated as an attack on all.
“If they don’t pay, I’m not going to defend them,” he told reporters last year.
At a 2024 campaign rally, Trump indicated that not only might the United States refuse to shield a NATO ally from Russian aggression, but his administration might even endorse such action.
He recalled a hypothetical exchange with a leader of a major NATO country, who asked how the U.S. would react if Russia struck a member that had failed to “pay up” during Trump’s first term.
“No, I would not protect you,” Trump recalled saying. “In fact, I would encourage them to do whatever the hell they want. You’ve got to pay. You got to pay your bills.”
Defending Montenegro
‘A tiny country with very strong people’
Trump expressed skepticism about U.S. willingness to defend Montenegro, citing it as an example of his reservations regarding blanket protection for NATO members.
“Montenegro is a tiny country with very strong people,” he remarked in 2018 during a Fox News appearance questioning whether American forces should intervene to protect the newly admitted Balkan state.
“They may get aggressive, and congratulations, you’re in World War III,” he added.
Military Contributions
‘We have never really asked anything of them.’
In January, as NATO members dismissed Trump’s threats to seize Greenland, he resorted to further invective.
“We have never really asked anything of them,” the president said in a Fox Business interview. “You know, they’ll say they sent some troops to Afghanistan, or this or that. And they did. They stayed a little back, little off the front lines.”
The comments drew sharp rebuttals in Britain, which lost 457 personnel over two decades in Afghanistan following the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. Prime Minister Keir Starmer branded the remarks “insulting and frankly appalling.” That engagement marked the sole invocation of NATO’s mutual defense clause.