Trump pushed NATO to spend big — now comes the harder question: Can Europe actually fight?

By Fox News · Fox News

By NATO ’s traditional metrics, the alliance appears transformed. After years of pressure from President Donald Trump and growing alarm over Russia’s war in Ukraine, NATO allies are spending more on defense than at any point since the Cold War. NATO leaders have agreed to move toward a new framework approaching 5% of GDP by 2035. For years, Trump accused NATO allies of relying too heavily on U.S. military protection while underinvesting in their own defense. His repeated threats to reconsider U.S. commitments to allies that failed to meet spending targets transformed what had once been an obscure alliance benchmark into one of NATO’s central political metrics. "What really woke everyone up were two things," Jim Townsend, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense for Europe and NATO policy now at CNAS, told Fox News Digital. "One was the 2022 invasion by Putin … and the second was Trump, who came in and whether he scared them or he shamed them or whatever he did, that certainly added fuel to the fire as well." TRUMP PRAISED FOR GETTING NATO ALLIES TO BOLSTER DEFENSE SPENDING: 'REALLY STAGGERING' Countries closest to Russia moved fastest. Poland now spends a larger share of its economy on defense than any other NATO member. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania all have sharply increased military budgets since 2022. Germany, long viewed as a symbol of Europe’s post-Cold War military decline, launched a major rearmament push and created a 100 billion euro special fund aimed at rebuilding the Bundeswehr. On paper, the numbers look like a historic turnaround . European allies and Canada increased defense spending by 20% in 2025 compared with the previous year, according to NATO’s latest annual report. The alliance says European members and Canada have added hundreds of billions of dollars in defense spending since 2014. UK, GERMAN DEFENSE OFFICIALS DEFEND MILITARY BUILDUP UNDER RUSSIAN THREATS Across Europe, governments are buying tanks, air defenses, fighter jets and arti…