Trump's new pressure on European allies: prizes and punishments according to military spending

BrusselsThe pressure from the United States on NATO's European allies to spend more on defense and to do so by buying American weapons does not stop. Washington's ambassador to the Atlantic Alliance, Matthew Whitaker, has warned that Donald Trump's administration will implement a new strategy to convince its transatlantic partners: it will "reward" governments that spend more on defense and punish those that allocate fewer resources to it.

The American diplomat did not want to go into much detail about the new threat, but he pointed out that some of the benefits could be that allies who allocate more money to defense "have easier access to American leaders." Or that they have "priority" when acquiring and contracting military equipment from the US. "There are many ways to materialize it. [...] We have already spoken with the Pentagon about what these incentives could be," Whitaker indicated this Wednesday at a press conference before next week's NATO meeting in Ankara. He did not clarify, however, what the punishments will consist of, although he assured that they are already working on it.

The American ambassador also called on European allies that he considers to be more committed to NATO's defense, such as Germany, Poland, or Finland, to pressure countries that are at a lower level, such as Spain.are at a lower level, such as Spain. "A little pressure between allies would be useful. It cannot be that only the United States tries to push in this direction," added Whitaker, who admitted that some governments will have to "make difficult decisions" to comply with Washington's objective of allocating at least 5% of their gross domestic product (GDP) to defense. This is a reference to the social cuts that some European states have made to comply with the Trump administration's demand.

Regarding Spain, the American ambassador pointed out that "there is no doubt" that Trump "is disappointed," both by the "problems related to access to military bases" following the war in the Middle East and by "the lack of will" of Pedro Sánchez's government to allocate 5% of GDP to military spending. Nevertheless, Whitaker wanted to downplay it and assured that he does not believe that the NATO summit will end up "revolving around" the relationship between the United States and Spain.

Criticism of European "protectionism"

The Trump administration insists it wants autonomous European allies in military matters and the arms industry. In reality, however, it always pressures them to continue buying weapons manufactured in the United States, instead of boosting their own industry. Thus, Whitaker has announced that the President of the United States will lash out against some of the European Union's "protectionist" measures, which prioritize the acquisition of armaments from European companies.

Despite these criticisms, the US ambassador has congratulated himself that "almost half of the 120 billion dollars" that European allies have spent on major rearmament over the past year has been allocated to American companies. Furthermore, although the US has completely cut off aid to Ukraine, Whitaker has celebrated the smooth functioning of the PURL initiative, driven by the Pentagon to make European allies pay for arms to the US to send to Kyiv's army. At present, according to the same ambassador, around 6 billion dollars have already been mobilized. A great deal for the United States.