Trump Privately Tells NATO Leaders He Wants US to Stay in Alliance

Behind closed doors, President Donald Trump has told NATO leaders that he wants the United States to remain a member of the transatlantic military alliance, according to a source familiar with the discussions. The private assurance marks a significant signal at a moment when allied governments have been anxiously monitoring American commitment to collective defense under a second Trump administration.

The disclosure carries considerable weight because Trump has repeatedly questioned NATO's value in public, arguing that European member states have long underpaid their share of defense costs and relied too heavily on American military guarantees. That rhetoric has generated sustained uncertainty in European capitals, prompting some governments to accelerate defense spending plans and explore contingency frameworks for security without Washington's full participation.

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For alliance officials, a direct statement of intent from Trump himself — even a private one — offers a degree of reassurance that public commentary alone has struggled to provide. It suggests that, whatever pressure tactics the administration deploys on burden-sharing, an outright exit from NATO is not currently on the table. Analysts have long noted that Trump tends to use the threat of disengagement as negotiating leverage rather than as a genuine policy endpoint.

The broader context is one of structural tension: NATO members have been pushed to move toward the alliance's two-percent-of-GDP defense spending benchmark, a goal Trump has championed aggressively. His private message may reflect a transactional calculus — continued membership conditioned on allies doing more — rather than an unconditional commitment to multilateral security architecture. How European leaders interpret and act on that distinction will shape the alliance's cohesion in the months ahead.

Continue reading at Reuters.