Trump Casts Doubt On Nato Security Agreement: ‘if They Don’t Pay, I’m Not Going To Defend Them’

President Donald Trump cast doubt Thursday on a core tenet of the NATO security alliance — that an attack on one member is an attack on all and must draw a response.

Trump, speaking to reporters during a bill signing in the Oval Office, said he would reconsider the U.S. commitment to the security pact if members in the 32-nation alliance do not increase defense spending as he has repeatedly demanded.

“Well, I think it’s common sense,” Trump said. “If they don’t pay, I’m not going to defend them.”

His remarks appeared to be an escalation of the anti-NATO rhetoric that was a feature of Trump’s first term and helped inspire a law passed in 2023 and signed by President Joe Biden that requires either two-thirds Senate approval or an act of Congress for the U.S. to exit the alliance.

Trump said he viewed NATO as "potentially good,” but he questioned whether the country’s European allies would come to the defense of the U.S.

“If the United States was in trouble and we called them … you think they’re going to come and protect us? They’re supposed to. I’m not so sure,” he said.

Last year, Keith Kellogg, who served on the National Security Council during Trump’s first time and is now his special envoy to Ukraine, said he would advocate a policy of revoking security protections from nations that don’t meet the NATO threshold of spending 2 percent of their GDP on defense.

Trump’s latest comments come at a particularly tense time, with the U.S. withdrawing military and intelligence support for Ukraine to pressure the country into accepting a deal to end the war with Russia.

In response, European allies are mobilizing to increase their support for Ukraine to help it hold off the Russian invasion.