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TANVI RATNA: Europe says Trump made America unreliable. The truth is tougher

The 2026 National Defense Strategy prioritizes homeland, China and burden-sharing over old commitments to Europe

By Tanvi Ratna Fox News

Published May 13, 2026 10:45am EDT

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The most important line in the transatlantic debate is not coming from Brussels, Ottawa, Paris or Berlin.

It is coming from the Pentagon.

The 2026 National Defense Strategy says the quiet part out loud: America is changing the bargain with its allies. The United States will still remain engaged abroad, but it will no longer treat every theater as America’s first responsibility. The new hierarchy is clear: defend the homeland, deter China in the Indo-Pacific, increase allied burden-sharing, and rebuild the defense industrial base.

That is the real story behind Europe’s sudden defense awakening.

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European leaders would rather describe this as a response to an unpredictable President Donald Trump. Recent reporting from Europe captured the mood after Trump announced plans to withdraw 5,000 U.S. troops from Germany, reporting that European lawmakers feared Washington was moving toward a more "unpredictable and transactional" approach to alliances amid tensions over the Iran war.

That story is not entirely false. It is just too flattering to Europe.

President Donald Trump meets with European leaders following a call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Aug. 18, 2025, in the Oval Office. (Daniel Torok/White House)

Trump has been signaling this shift since his first term, and with renewed force since returning to office in 2025. Now the administration has turned it into doctrine. The Pentagon’s 2026 National Defense Strategy makes clear that the old transatlantic bargain is being rewritten. Its four priorities are defending the American homeland, deterring China in the Indo-Pacific, increasing allied burden-sharing, and rebuilding the U.S. defense industrial base. Its treatment of Europe is even more direct: Russia is described as a serious but manageable threat, and European allies are expected to assume primary responsibility for their conventional defense with "critical but more limited" U.S. support.

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The Pentagon strategy says it will strengthen incentives for allies to take "primary responsibility for their own defense" in Europe, the Middle East and Korea, with "critical but limited support" from U.S. forces. It also says Washington will........

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