Europe Would Not Increase Military Spending Without Trump, Rutte

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has stated that achieving the target level of defense spending set for 2025 by the military alliance has been made possible due to the influence of former U.S. President Donald Trump. Rutte made this remark during the World Economic Forum held in Davos.

“I know that many of you criticize Trump. But do you really think that without Trump, Europe’s eight largest economies, including Spain, Italy, Belgium, and Canada, would be able to meet the target of spending 2% of GDP on defense by 2025? At the beginning of the year, that figure was only 1.5%. Without Trump, this would never have happened. Now they all have reached the 2% level,” noted Rutte.