Last year, President Donald Trump cast doubt about Europe’s role in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). He put pressure on European members of NATO to up their spending, saying they relied too much on the United States for defense. He was correct, as for a while, several NATO members were not spending even 2% of their GDP on national defense, the minimum requirement that leaders had agreed upon in 2023. This was alarming for a continent that was constantly talking about the dangers of potential conflict with Russia, which invaded Ukraine in 2022 and is continuing to set its sights on NATO’s eastern flank. 

Perhaps Trump didn’t have to be as rude about it back then, but he was right to call out Europe’s hypocrisy. Europe seemed to recognize this and members of NATO agreed in last year’s summit to invest tens of billions of dollars into collective security, and even aim to 3.5% of their GDP on defense by 2023. It was perhaps a bit too late (especially for the people of Ukraine), but it’s better late than never. In exchange, President Trump stopped being vague about America’s commitment to its allies and reaffirmed his commitment alongside other NATO members to keeping Article 5 of NATO.

It’s now 2026, and from the data, things are looking good. Every NATO member has either reached the 2% threshold or has passed it. More NATO countries, like Germany and Britain, are committing more to collective defense as well as helping out Ukraine. Despite a seemingly negative result from a recent NATO military exercise in Estonia, we’re seeing European members in NATO beginning to learn lessons and recognize the urgency to adapt and build up their forces to a new state of readiness. And while Europe may not be prepared for a potential war with Russia, it’s working on its flaws.

What happened with Trump’s promise to commit to NATO? After the unnecessary Greenland fiasco in January, NATO was nearly blown out of the water after a standoff between both sides of the Atlantic. America threatened tariffs against Europe, while several European nations sent troops to Greenland in a show of support for Denmark. Trump, for a while, had military force on the table. Fortunately for all parties, Trump stepped down from using military force and agreed to go back to dialogue. It’s been a few weeks now, and thankfully, news about Greenland has died down.

But the incident provoked a deep rift between the US and its allies. For a moment in January, there was a serious worry that a NATO member might have attacked another NATO member. Europe and Canada now wonder whether they can rely on America and are searching for alternatives. Canada has been calling on “middle powers” to come together and has been recently courting China to break away from America.

This all seems like a messy unraveling from the bright hopes that were laid out in last year’s NATO summit. Trump has gone against long-standing principles of Western security, and now some in the West are taking this opportunity to go to the adversaries of the West.

Fortunately, we still have some who are willing to stick through and repair this bent relationship. The Chancellor of Germany, Friedrich Merz, during his opening remarks this week at the beginning of the Munich Security Conference, called for the US and Europe to “repair and revive trans-Atlantic trust together.” 

President Trump has been right to pressure European members of NATO to spend more on defense and shoulder more of the burden. But after European members raised their defense spending budgets, America has not responded in a constructive and helpful manner. It is aimlessly clashing with Europe for no reason other than Trump’s volatile personality. It is frankly unfair. Personally, I may not agree with how many European countries run their politics or govern their citizens. But they are still our allies, and they are trying to work with us. 

Now is the time for America to affirm Europe’s change of heart and to work with them to push back against Russia’s illicit and shadowy moves against Europe, ranging from drone incursions to messing with European infrastructure. Now is the time, especially in this era where America’s adversaries all across the world are growing bolder by the day, to have a strong common bulwark between Europe and America. This is not vague idealism, but necessary if the West wants to survive. 

Picture taken by Michael Probst of the AP News