{"id":8033,"date":"2026-07-14T22:32:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T22:32:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/8033\/"},"modified":"2026-07-14T22:32:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T22:32:10","slug":"editorial-summit-shows-nato-alliance-will-endure-with-or-without-u-s-daily-press","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/8033\/","title":{"rendered":"Editorial: Summit shows NATO alliance will endure with or without U.S. \u2013 Daily Press"},"content":{"rendered":"

America\u2019s allies have a pretty clear idea of what to expect when President Donald Trump attends international events such as last week\u2019s NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey<\/a>. Trump, no fan of the alliance, offered his usual threats and bluster. He demanded, yet again, that Europe take more responsibility for its defense.<\/p>\n

Different this year, however, was evidence of a NATO alliance that appears stronger, more aligned and less dependent on the United States. It suggests that the organization will endure, and perhaps even thrive, in a world where America is no longer a trustworthy international partner. That\u2019s good news for NATO, but discouraging news for our nation.<\/p>\n

The United States was a founding member of NATO when it was organized in the aftermath of World War II. In more than 80 years since the North Atlantic treaty was signed, the alliance has provided tremendous benefit to our nation, helping advance our strategic interests, guard against Soviet aggression and even defend our homeland after the 2001 terrorist attacks, the only time NATO invoked its mutual defense protocols.<\/p>\n

As NATO\u2019s home in North America, Hampton Roads has a vested interest in the United States maintaining good relations with the other alliance nations. Our region hosts troops from other NATO members, who work in partnership with U.S. service members; NATO\u2019s footprint helps bolster our regional defense industry<\/a> and its related employment; and it is a source of great pride that an organization advancing global security is located in our community.<\/p>\n

Despite all of that, Trump has repeatedly smeared NATO throughout his time as president. He views international relationships through the lens of transactions, and argues that the United States invests more in the alliance and the defense of Europe than it receives in return.<\/p>\n

To his credit, his insistence that NATO members increase their own defense spending has helped balance the ledger<\/a>. In 2014, our fellow members spent 1.4% of their GDP on defense, a figure that increased to 2.3% last year. The administration\u2019s argument is that offloading some of the burden on Europe will allow the U.S. to reduce its own defense budget and spend more on domestic priorities.<\/p>\n

But that hasn\u2019t been the case. The White House has proposed a $1.5 trillion defense budget, the largest in history by a mile. And our engagement in international conflicts has also proliferated under this president, with operations in Venezuela, the Caribbean, the Pacific and in Iran occurring this year alone.<\/p>\n

But by demanding European members accept a greater share of responsibility for NATO, Trump has also weakened the United States\u2019 bargaining position. An alliance freed from U.S. dependence is also less likely to heed U.S. direction<\/a> on the global stage.<\/p>\n

The Iran conflict is one recent example. The president has fumed that NATO hasn\u2019t helped with his war of choice, launched in partnership with Israel, that has dragged on for months. And he used the recent summit to sharply criticize Spain for its vocal opposition, in addition to threatening tariffs against that country for its lack of cooperation.<\/p>\n

Nor has it helped that Trump has obsessed over the United States taking control of Greenland, a country administered by Denmark, a fellow NATO member. Trump\u2019s saber-rattling reportedly prompted Danish forces to prepare for an invasion<\/a> last year, and the president used last week\u2019s summit to repeat his desire to control it and for Canada, another NATO member, to join the United States.<\/p>\n

For NATO, though, the president\u2019s bluster was expected and, frankly, ignored. The Ankara conference produced \u201cclose to $50 billion in new defense contracts, another $30 billion in investments in energy infrastructure, and $80 billion in military assistance to Ukraine both this year and next,\u201d according to The Atlantic<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The next president may try to restore relations, but it\u2019s possible the damage is irreparable. Trump wanted to distance the U.S. from NATO; his success in that endeavor will be our loss.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"America\u2019s allies have a pretty clear idea of what to expect when President Donald Trump attends international events…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8034,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1787,2480,241],"class_list":["post-8033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-editorials","tag-latest-headlines","tag-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8033"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8033\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}