U.S. President Donald Trump, during his first term, considered expelling at least four of its members from NATO for low defense spending.
According to Polish news agency PAP, former NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg wrote about this in his memoirs.
Stoltenberg wrote the book On My Watch: Leading NATO in a Time of War, in which he described the period from 2014 to 2024, when he headed NATO.
In his memoirs, Stoltenberg writes that in 2018, the defense spending of Denmark, Norway, Germany and Norway did not even exceed 1.5% of their gross domestic product (GDP). Against this background, Trump allegedly considered expelling these countries from NATO. Instead of full membership, they were to receive only the guarantees enjoyed by Sweden, which was not yet a member of the alliance.
Trump blasted French President Emmanuel Macron and former German Chancellor Angela Merkel for not paying as much as the United States. He also criticized them for their low defense budgets, which amounted to less than 10% of NATO's total budget.
Stoltenberg writes that then-Secretary of Defense James Mattis allegedly apologized to him repeatedly for Trump's behavior. He also allegedly gave Stoltenberg advice on how not to anger the American leader
As the Ukrainian News agency earlier reported, in August this year, the Financial Times wrote, that after the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by the aggressor country of russia, the expansion of European defense companies has tripled, which indicates huge investments in defense.
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