Trump heads for NATO showdown. See how much US spends on the alliance
Amid repeated claims from President Donald Trump that NATO members have relied too heavily on the United States for defense and haven't spent enough on their own security, leaders from all of the alliance's member nations are gathering in Turkey to demonstrate progress made on a spending pledge made last year.
At the 2025 summit in The Hague, allies set a spending target for 5% of gross domestic product (GDP) from each member nation on defense and related security spending by 2035.
Trump's announced troop withdrawals from Europe and the Pentagon's six-month review of U.S. military presence in Europe has further raised the stakes going into the two-day summit.
According to NATO, the United States and Germany are the top contributors to the cost of running the alliance, which is estimated at 5.3 billion euros in 2026 ($6.06 billion). This cost included expenses such as running the entirety of the organization and its military commands:
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NATO also collects defense expenditure data from its allies. These are not part of NATO's operating budget. In total, member countries reported spending about $1.64 trillion on defense in 2025. The United States reported a defense budget of $980 billion, about 60% of the alliance's total defense spending.
Defense spending as a share of GDP has dropped since 1986, when Cold War priorities and the United States' role as NATO's key nuclear deterrent against the Soviet Union drove higher defense spending. NATO reported the United States had an estimated GDP of more than $30 trillion in 2025:
How much do countries contribute to the NATO budget?
Here's a look at how top nations contributing to NATO in relation to its GDP and how those contributions have changed since 2014:
Trump on NATO spending
Over the years, Trump's position on the spending levels of European allies has been mostly consistent; he has asserted that member nations should spend more on defense and ease the U.S. burden. In an interview with The Washington Post's editorial board in March 2016, then-candidate Trump noted the size of the United States' financial obligation to the alliance.
"NATO is costing us a fortune and yes, we're protecting Europe with NATO but we're spending a lot of money," he said. "I think the distribution of costs has to be changed."
Here's a look at some of his past remarks on NATO spending:
What countries are a part of NATO?
NATO was established as a defense alliance and now has 32 member nations across North America and Europe. It was founded in 1949 in response to security concerns after World War II and the growing threat posed by the Soviet Union.
The list of other leaders who might attend includes Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, European Council President Antonio Costa and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who are expected to join a dinner with NATO leaders July 7.
SOURCES North Atlantic Treaty Organization; Reuters; ABC News
This story has updated to correct a misspelling.