Given the clear threat posed by Russia, some increase in European defense spending is clearly warranted. However, many European nations are suffering economic stress, partially caused by President Trump’s tariffs. It is frankly unlikely that their commitment to spend 5 percent of GDP on core national defense requirements will ever be met.

Only Spain has been honest about this and that has angered the American president.

Trump has called Spain a “laggard,” and has threatened to “throw them out of NATO.” More recently, he has vowed to punish Spain by imposing additional tariffs on Spanish exports.

If the goal here is to strengthen European nations’ capacity to thwart a possible Russian threat, this is a very strange way to go about it. In his first term, Trump pushed NATO countries to spend 3 percent of GDP on defense, an increase over the 2 percent goal set earlier by President Barack Obama.

The U.S. itself paid 3.4 percent in 2024. It clearly dominates NATO in gross defense expenditures. European countries are now buying American weapons — not for themselves, but to supply Ukraine. That will help Ukraine, but it isn’t going to strengthen the military readiness of our........

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