U.S. President Trump posted on social media on the 2nd, saying that the relationship between the United States and NATO is "ridiculous" because "this relationship is not reciprocal."
According to Xinhua News Agency, earlier that day Trump published a post saying: "So far, the United States has spent much more on NATO than any other country—this is to protect them, but we have never received any benefits." In his post, he listed the defense spending figures of multiple countries: the United States $999 billion, the United Kingdom $90.5 billion, France $66.5 billion, Italy $48.8 billion, and Poland $44.3 billion. He wrote: "Ridiculous!"
Later, Trump posted again, stating, "It's ridiculous for the United States to continue down this one-way road, because this relationship is not reciprocal," and "they (NATO allies) are not on our side." He also converted the above countries' defense spending figures into a bar chart and attached it below this post.
In recent years, Trump has continued to pressure European allies to increase military spending, repeatedly accusing NATO member countries of failing to meet the required proportion of their annual defense expenditures to gross domestic product (GDP). Under Trump's persistent pressure, NATO member countries have collectively agreed as of June 2025 to raise their annual defense spending to 5% of GDP by 2035, but the United States still advocates for building a NATO based on "partnership rather than dependency," that is, the U.S. will push for Europe to play a leading role in NATO's conventional defense.