President Donald Trump speaks in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, on Jan. 21, 2025, in Washington. [Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP]
“Misery loves company,” Mephistopheles says in Christopher Marlowe’s play “The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus.” Written in 1604, the line has since become a proverb – and it perfectly describes the feelings of European leaders when US President Donald Trump, in his first speech following his inauguration, made no reference whatsoever to Washington’s allies, which has been the customary thing for American presidents to do for the past 66 years.
When it comes to NATO, moreover, Trump believes it to be an obsolete mechanism that costs Washington a scandalously high amount of money. Nevertheless, the claims circulated by his rivals suggesting that Trump intends to pull the US out of NATO are unfounded. Among other reasons, the American president does not have the legal authority to unilaterally make such a decision.
It is worth mentioning, of course, that of the 32 member-states of the Atlantic Alliance, only Poland and Latvia spend as much on defense, as a percentage of gross domestic product, as the United States does. What’s more, Trump’s point of view is hardly novel: At the European Council summit in Dublin on November 29, 1979, Margaret Thatcher complained about the high cost of Britain’s contribution to European coffers, saying, “We want to get our own money back!” It may not be the same exact situation, but it’s similar enough.
Then there’s the fact that the American contribution to Ukraine in its war with Russia came to $61.6 billion at the end of August. In other words, the US contributed $10 billion more than all the other nine countries in NATO combined, including Germany, the UK and France.
Trump has repeatedly claimed that the Russian invasion of Ukraine would never have happened if he had been president at the time. This is why he did not invite Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy to his inauguration and did not mention the country in his first speech.
The United States’ European allies that followed Joe Biden without protest and became involved in the war are expected to align with Trump’s policy, which is to negotiate a settlement with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin. It is, however, an exceedingly difficult endeavor that will not be accomplished anytime soon.