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The president has long pressed European allies to pay more for their own security. So they may redefine what qualifies as security.
May 23, 2025Updated 10:47 a.m. ET
When President Trump demanded months ago that NATO allies spend 5 percent of their national income on defense, leaders across Europe said it couldn’t be done.
Now those countries have found a way to meet his call — with a bit of creative accounting.
Some NATO countries have in principle backed a new plan to broaden NATO spending beyond traditional items such as troops and weapons. The plan calls for a target of military spending at 3.5 percent of their gross domestic product, plus another 1.5 percent for newer, nontraditional “defense-related” spending by 2032, officials said.
The latter could include building or improving rail lines and bridges to withstand the weight of military convoys, strengthening cybersecurity or developing advanced technology for weaponry and communications. Some member nations are open to shouldering more of their collective costs, alarmed by Mr. Trump’s threats to weaken American support for European security if they don’t.
“We have to make sure that we have all the enablers in place, everything related to defense spending in place,” the NATO secretary general, Mark Rutte, said last week after meeting with the alliance’s foreign ministers in Turkey, where countries agreed to the 5 percent plan.
“Sometimes when you cross a bridge in Europe, you hope with your own car that you safely get across it — let alone with a tank,” he added.
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