Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth warned NATO allies Thursday both to “take primary responsibility” for the defense of Europe — and that anything below spending 5% of annual gross domestic product on their militaries is “not enough.”
“Our European allies should take primary responsibility for defense of the continent, which means security ownership by all allies, guided by a clear understanding of strategic realities,” Hegeseth told a defense ministerial meeting in Brussels, part of his first overseas trip.
“That begins with increasing defense spending,” he said.
“Two percent is a start, as President Trump has said, but it’s not enough, nor is 3%, nor is 4% — more like 5%.”
“We can talk all we want about values. Values are important, but you can’t shoot values. You can’t shoot flags and you can’t shoot strong speeches,” Hegseth added. “There is no replacement for hard power.”
President Trump has long claimed that NATO nations aren’t shouldering enough of the defense burden on the continent, provocatively threatening during his successful 2024 campaign that he would let Russia “do whatever the hell they want” to European nations if they didn’t pony up.
On Thursday, Hegseth invoked President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s 1959 gripe that European reliance on US forces to keep the peace and forestall Soviet expansion following the Second World War was “making a sucker out of Uncle Sam.”
“Like President Eisenhower, this administration believes in alliances, deeply believes in alliances,” the Pentagon leader told the foreign dignitaries. “But make no mistake, President Trump will not allow anyone to turn Uncle Sam into Uncle Sucker.”
On Wednesday, the president spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, seeking to wind down the nearly three-year-long war between the nations.
Other Trump administration officials — including Vice President JD Vance and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent — are also spending time in Europe this week.
Both are expected to meet with Zelensky, with Vance joining the Ukrainian president at the weekend Munich Security Conference.
Hegseth noted to NATO officials Thursday that he had also attended a Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting the day before that briefed allies on US efforts to bring about “a diplomatic, peaceful end to the war as quickly as possible, in a manner that creates enduring and durable peace.”
But that won’t come with a return to pre-2014 borders for the nation that Russia invaded in February 2022.
“The borders won’t be rolled back to what everybody would like them to be in 2014,” Hegseth said, claiming that acknowledging the fact was not “a concession to Vladimir Putin.”
“It’s a recognition of the hard power realities on the ground,” he went on, “and then a realization that a negotiated peace is going to be some sort of demarcation that neither side wants.”
Hegseth declined to discuss the “parameters” of a possible deal between Russia and Ukraine further, but said: “Trump, as a deal maker and a businessman, recognizes that a investment relationship with Ukraine, ultimately, in the long term for the United States, is a lot more tangible than any promises or shared values we might have.”
