President Donald Trump on Tuesday refused to state whether he would commit the United States to continued support of the mutual defense provision in the NATO treaty that saw America’s allies come to her aid after the September 11, 2001 terror attacks on New York and Washington.
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One while flying to The Hague for the alliance’s annual leader-level summit, the president was asked if he was still committed to Article Five of the North Atlantic Treaty, which states that an attack against one member is considered an attack against all of the organization’s 32 member nations.
Trump, who often refused to voice U.S. support for the collective defense pact during his first term — and only did so begrudgingly when pressed on the matter — declined to say for sure.
He replied: “It depends on your definition. There’s numerous definitions of Article Five. You know that, right?”
The president added that he was nonetheless “committed to being … friends” with the other members of the alliance because he had “become friends with many of those leaders” and was “committed to helping them.”
When pressed to explain his comments and given another chance to voice support for mutual defense, he told reporters he was “committed to saving lives” and “committed to live and safety” while promising to give his “exact definition” of Article Five once he arrived in The Hague rather than doing so “on the back of an airplane.”
Trump’s ambiguous language on American support for the bedrock commitment of NATO membership — the pledge for all member nations to aid any member that faces an attack — is the latest example of his tendency to hedge on the matter or even voice hostility to the defensive alliance, which he has long incorrectly described as a sort of protection racket in which other nations pay “dues” to the organization.
His hostility to NATO dates back to his first visit to the annual gathering in 2017, when he groused that other members of the bloc weren’t paying what he called their “fair share” because they weren’t yet meeting a targeted amount of defense spending as a percentage of gross domestic product.
That target, set at two percent of GDP nearly two decades ago, has been reached by at least 23 of the 32 members as of last year.
But the organization is poised to raise the commitment to five percent of GDP at this year’s summit, giving Trump a major win — and a cudgel with which he can potentially bully other members by threatening to withhold U.S. assistance in the event of an attack on a nation that isn’t hitting that target.
A White House official said Trump “intends” to push the group to set the “historic five percent defense spending pledge,” calling it something that would “strengthen the Alliance’s combined military capabilities and ensure greater stability in Europe and the world.”
That push for a five percent target appears to have been successful. While in flight, Trump took to Truth Social to share what appeared to be a screen shot of a text or Signal chat message from Mark Rutte, the former Dutch prime minister turned NATO Secretary-General, who told him he was “flying into another big success” at the summit.
“It was not easy, but we’ve got them all signed onto 5 percent,” Rutte wrote.
He added: “Donald, you have drive us to a really, really important moment for America and Europe, and the world … Europe is going to pay in a BIG way, as they should, and it will be your win.”
The same White House official also said Trump will exhort NATO members to “revitalize their industrial capacities in order to create Western supply chains capable of producing the critical minerals, infrastructure, weapons and other products necessary for the security of America and her allies.”
The president is also set to participate in “bilateral meetings with several world leaders” and hold a press conference before departing the summit late Wednesday, ending a whirlwind visit that will kick off Tuesday evening with the pomp and circumstance of an official welcome ceremony and a formal dinner with the King and Queen of the Netherlands along with other NATO leaders .
It’s not yet known which leaders he will meet with during his time at the summit on Wednesday. Heads of state or government from all 32 member nations will be in attendance, as well as one high-profile guest: Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky.
The president did tell reporters traveling with him to The Hague that he’d “probably” sit down with the Ukrainian leader, with whom he has long had a contentious relationship.
Shortly after he spoke in-flight, he posted another message on Truth Social.
“Heading to NATO where, at worst, it will be a much calmer period than what I just went through with Israel and Iran. I look forward to seeing all of my very good European friends, and others,” he said.
“Hopefully, much will be accomplished!”
