On June 9, the 141st day of his presidency, Donald Trump committed the United States to its Article V obligations as a member of NATO.
During a joint press conference with Romanian President Klaus Iohannis outside the White House, Trump said he is “committing the United States to Article V.” The statement was not part of Trump’s prepared remarks. It was made in response to a question from a reporter whether he would commit the U.S. military to Article V.
“Absolutely, I’d be committed to Article V,” he said during the Rose Garden appearance.
Even prior to his election, Trump assailed NATO as “obsolete” and was non-committal at best about whether the U.S. would come to the aid of European allies if attacked. The notion that an attack on one alliance member is an attack on all is the central pillar of the 70-year-old multinational pact. The only time Article V has been invoked was after the 9/11 attacks on the United States.
During a recent trip to Europe where he attended a NATO ministerial, Trump antagonized his counterparts by insisting, as he repeatedly has, that European countries are do not spend enough on their own defense. He has accused them of owing the U.S. arrears for not yet meeting a voluntary goal of spending 2 percent of each nation’s gross domestic product on defense. The deadline to reach that spending level is 2024.
On Friday, Trump thanked Iohannis and Romania for being a “true ally.” Romania joined NATO along with a number of former Soviet Republics – Blugaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia and Slovenia – in March 2004.
“It’s a great honor to have you,” Trump said. “You’ve been a true ally, a wonderful country, and a great relationship and that relationship as you know as of moments ago is getting even better. So thank you very much for being here.”
Trump continued his false narrative of NATO members owing the alliance money, and beginning to pay up because of his public lambasting, by saying that money is “starting to pour into NATO” and that he takes personal pride in that “fact.”
Each member state pays into a small fund that is used for administrative costs but does not pay NATO for defense capabilities or personnel. Each nation is responsible for funding its own defense, which in turn must be available in part or in whole to the alliance in time of crisis.
At the NATO meeting in Brussels, Trump was widely expected to publicly state his and the U.S. commitment to Article V but instead delivered a watered down declaration that “we will never forsake the friend who stood by our side.”
Trump made clear the U.S. would come to the aid of its European allies during the Rose Garden speech.
“I am committing the United States — and have committed — but I am committing the United States to Article V,” he said.