NATO’s defense expenses are increasing while Trump and Putin Reshape Alliance Dynamics

The effects of the war of President Donald Trump and the Russian president Vladimir Putin in Ukraine on NATO have forced rapid and potentially permanent changes in the alliance.

After the announcement of last month that the majority of the 32 NATO members had agreed to increase defense expenses to reach 5% of the GDP of each nation, Trump pulled the headlines after having radically changed his tone and declared that the alliance was no longer a “scam”. But its previously difficult position has seen undeniable results in the functioning of the security group.

“Trump has changed the game,” said Peter Doran, an expert in Russia, Ukraine and Transatlantic Relations, and a senior auxiliary member at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. “(Then) There is Vladimir Putin, who clearly aroused Europeans to the danger that Russia presents to them.”

From his first mandate, Trump made his resentment that only five NATO allies met their promises of defense of defense of GDP at 2%, and these criticisms sounded noisily after his return to the campaign campaign for the 2024 elections in the middle of the Russian war in Ukraine.

The questions have spread about the question of whether Trump would not only continue to provide solid American support to Ukraine, but if Washington would remain a reliable ally for Europe in the face of the reality of a Russia lend to war.

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President Donald Trump held a press conference after the Summit of Heads of State and the Government of NATO in Hague, the Netherlands, June 25, 2025. (Dursun Aydemir / Anadolu via Getty Images)

Although an increasing number of NATO countries began to increase their defendants of defense spending after the invasion of Ukraine in 2022 by Russia, several allies began to put pressure so that Trump does not even return to the White House.

Trump not only threatened to withdraw the troops from Europe and divert them to positions in Asia, but he suggested that he could not come to the defense of an NATO ally if they were attacked, saying sadly during a campaign event in February 2024, “you do not pay your bills; you do not get any protection.” It is very simple. “

“I encourage them to do what they want,” he said with regard to the threat of a Russian attack on a NATO nation.

But his difficult rhetoric seemed to give results.

NATO secretary general, Mark Rutte-who shared a good relationship with Trump-jokingly referred Trump’s geopolitical trends in unconventional state spirit, especially after using the word F in a fiery diatribe on a break in the Iran-Israeli ceasefire at the summit of last month when he said, “Dadady must sometimes use a solid language”.

President Donald Trump is welcomed by NATO secretary general, Mark Rutte (right) and the Prime Minister of the Netherlands, Dick Schoof (left) during the official NATO 2025 summit in Hague on June 25, 2025. (Images AP)

“Donald Trump real contrast with Joe Biden,” said Hudson Institute on Europe and Eurasia to Fox News and Director. “Joe Biden, Bear tightened the NATO allies to the point of suffocating them with worship, and that led them, I think, to sit and to relax a little.

“Donald Trump, on the other hand, explains the allies just enough hostile power to encourage them to do more, but that did not expose them so much that he could invite a Russian attack,” he added. “And I think it is the art of agreement, so to speak.”

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But as experts are agreeing, NATO countries have increased their defense expenses even more without the pressure than Trump on them, the role of Russian President Vladimir Putin in NATO reindigoration cannot be ignored.

Participants of a high intensity training session, seen at the end of the exercise in the Nowa Deba training ground on May 6, 2023 in Nowa Deba, Poland. (Artur Widak / Nurphoto via Getty Images)

“If Vladimir Putin and the Russians in the post-cold period period had sought to engage Europe and have chosen a democratic future more, there could be no NATO alliance today,” said Rouh. “But Putin gave NATO a real reason to exist, and President Trump did his part in … Cajoliant, pushing, pushing the allies.”

But not everyone is convinced that NATO’s changes are permanent.

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Mike Ryan, who was officially assistant to defend European policy and NATO, told Fox News Digital that he did not necessarily believe that the Trump and Putin presidencies had permanently changed the NATO alliance but said: “The two energized and concentrated (the) allies.”

“But that’s what happens in NATO when faced with an external crisis,” he added.

During the re-election of Trump, there was increased concern about how the United States would be perceived by its allies, whether it is always a trusted partner or if it returned to isolationist trends that we have not seen since the conduct of the Second World War.

US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy meet during the Sommet des heads of state and the NATO government in Hague, the Netherlands on June 25, 2025. (Getty Images)

“The answer is very clearly no,” said Doran. “If anything, Trump has returned and did exactly the same thing as he did in the first administration, and that should remind Europeans that they are under-depth chronic in defense.

“If anything, Trump has not changed at all. It is the conscience of Europeans that they need to spend more, and they responded positively to this challenge, and it is very encouraging,” he added.

Although rough warned, there is a balance to maintain when setting up such pressure on the American allies.

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“Donald Trump has created a lot of anxiety in Europe, and it is important to convert this anxiety into political victories,” he said. “If this anxiety is authorized to linger or is exacerbated or aggravated, then we could see certain European states push more for a so-called strategic autonomy, or a separation of the United States

“But if this anxiety results in … real political victories and partnerships with Europe, then I think it can be healthy,” said Rouh.