Will Trump Withdraw US From NATO? What Analysts Said [Video]

In his first term as president, Donald Trump had a testy relationship with NATO, suggesting he could pull the U.S. out of the defensive alliance unless all member states started meeting the spending target. Now, after his election win, Trump is coming back.

NATO, set up in the aftermath of WWII and at the dawn of the Cold War to counter the Soviet Union, requires members to spend at least 2 percent of GDP on defense.

Yet, only a handful were doing so at the time of Trump’s criticism—a long-running concern of successive U.S. administrations—with NATO instead leaning disproportionately heavily on American military might.

Since then, and in the context of Russia’s full invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the vast majority NATO member states are now meeting the 2 percent target. But Trump has still repeated his sharp criticisms of NATO.

Recounting his NATO summit discussions, Trump told a South Carolina rally in February 2024 that the alliance “was busted …