Biden Tries to Take Credit for Increased NATO Defense Spending Under Trump

At the conclusion of the recent North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit in Washington D.C. earlier this month, Joe Biden attempted to take credit for the rise in defense spending by the alliance’s member states, even though this was first encouraged by his predecessor, Donald Trump

According to Just The News, President Trump successfully pushed for members of NATO to increase defense spending to 2% of their total Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Several member states had first agreed to such an increase in 2014 under Barack Obama’s tenure, but had delayed the payments and were not expected to complete the increases by the deadline of 2024.

Before Trump took office, only three member states had met the spending target. By the end of his first term, that number had tripled to nine. As of now, over two-thirds of the 32 NATO members are expected to successfully reach the target by the end of 2024. Canada plans to increase its defense spending to 2% of its GDP by the year 2032.

But in his remarks during the conference, Biden took credit for this development, saying that “in the year 2020, the year I was elected president, only nine NATO allies were spending 2% of their GDP on defense. This year, 23 will spend at least 2 percent. And some will spend more than that.”

Despite the increases in spending taking place during Biden’s term, many commentators have pointed out that the effort began in earnest under Trump, with opinion pieces from even the likes of the Washington Post giving credit to Trump, not Biden, and admitting that it was the right thing to do.

Back in 2019, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg admitted that President Trump was responsible for the rise in NATO defense spending.

“President Trump has been very clear. He is committed to NATO,” Stoltenberg said at the time. “But at the same time, he has clearly stated that NATO allies need to invest more. And therefore at the summit in July last year, we agreed to do more to step up, and now we see the results. We see that the clear message from President Donald Trump is having an impact.”

Urging NATO members to chip in more on defense spending was one of the cornerstones of President Trump’s “America First” view on foreign policy, as he frequently pointed out on the campaign trail that the United States still spends far more on NATO’s defense than any other member. The 2% spending from most other members is still much lower than the 3.5% spending by the U.S. on an annual basis. In 2024, the only states that spend higher percentages on defense than the United States are Poland and Estonia, with 4.12% and 3.43%, respectively.