Trump’s “America First” ends NATO |
The NATO crisis has ceased to be abstract and has taken on concrete contours amid the sharp reversal of U.S. policy under Donald Trump.
Trump versus NATO
The crisis facing NATO today has little to do with Trump’s incendiary suggestion that China or Russia could dominate Greenland and everything to do with the logic of his “America First” doctrine. Trump’s worldview treats Europe not as a partner but as a structural liability — a continent whose security Europeans insist on outsourcing to Washington even as they fail to develop their own strategic capacity. This is why Trump has repeatedly demanded that NATO allies shoulder a far greater share of collective defence costs. At the 2025 NATO summit in The Hague, member states agreed to boost defence spending targets sharply after persistent US pressure — a move Trump hailed as a triumph of his leadership, even as many Europeans saw it as a coerced concession.
But that concession appears only to have emboldened Trump. Having wrung higher defence budgets from NATO capitals, he now wants more. Greenland — an Arctic territory rich in critical minerals and strategic position — has become the next obsession. The Trump administration is publicly toying with acquiring the island from Denmark, including threatening economic consequences for opponents and openly discussing military options. US control of Greenland, Trump argues, would secure not only vast reserves of future-critical resources but also a more commanding strategic posture vis-à-vis Europe itself.
This calculus dovetails European anxieties about strategic autonomy. In 2024, the European Commission commissioned former Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi to produce a major report outlining the challenges facing the EU’s competitiveness and its capacity........