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Germany has pushed back on calls from President-Elect Donald Trump for NATO allies to increase defense spending to 5% of GDP.
Some shit you should know before you read: Shortly after winning the election, President-Elect Donald Trump renewed his longstanding demand for NATO allies to significantly increase their defense spending, calling for member states to allocate at least 5% of their GDP to military budgets. This is a notable increase from NATO’s current 2% target, which was established in 2014 to bolster collective defense in response to growing security threats, including Russia’s annexation of Crimea. Trump has frequently criticized NATO partners for underfunding their militaries, arguing that the financial burden has fallen disproportionately on the United States, which spends around 3.37% of its GDP on defense.

What’s going on now: In response to Trump’s renewed call for NATO allies to increase defense spending to 5% of GDP, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz rejected the idea, citing the financial impracticality and potential impact on essential public services. While speaking at an event, Scholz said, “Five percent would be over €200 billion ($204 billion) per year — the federal budget is not even €500 billion.” He stressed that such an increase would only be feasible through “massive tax increases or massive cuts to many things that are important to us,” including pensions, local government, and transportation infrastructure, all of which he vowed to protect.
Scholz also noted that Germany had just reached NATO’s 2% spending target in 2022 for the first time since the Cold War, aided by a €100 billion special defense fund established in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He said, “I guarantee that we will continue to spend 2% of our economic output on defense.” Still, he dismissed the notion of going beyond this level without identifying clear additional funding sources.
This all comes as some NATO countries, notably Poland, have expressed support for increasing defense spending requirements in response to rising security threats. Poland, which already commits 4.2% of its GDP to defense—one of the highest among NATO members—plans to raise this figure to 4.7% by 2026. Polish Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz described Trump’s 5% proposal as a “wake-up call” for NATO allies. Kamysz added, “He should not be criticized for setting a really ambitious target because otherwise there will be some countries that will continue to debate whether more spending is really needed.”