Why America keeps pressing its allies and partners to spend more on defence
Trump’s defence strategy uses allied military spending to create jobs, sustain production lines and reinforce the US’ weapons industry.
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US President Donald Trump and NATO secretary-general Mark Rutte at the NATO summit in Ankara on July 8.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Cory Alpert
Since returning to office, US President Donald Trump has appeared relentless in one pursuit: persuading America’s allies to raise defence spending. A key win from his recent NATO summit was what the White House claims as “The Trump Trillion” – a historic US$1.2 trillion (S$1.55 trillion) more in defence spending by NATO since his first term.
The conventional interpretation of such a move is that it enables the US to shoulder less of the burden of safeguarding global security. But Trump’s push goes beyond reducing American commitments and is more accurately about expanding American production through foreign purchases of US weaponry. NATO allies are said to have procured more than US$54 billion in US defence equipment in 2025 alone.