Editorial Board

Trump Wants to Reshape NATO. He Mustn’t Break It

While the 75-year-old alliance needs to fix its burden-sharing problem, it’s still a force multiplier for the US.

November 26, 2024 at 11:30 AM UTC

By The Editorial Board

The Editorial Board publishes the views of the editors across a range of national and global affairs.

Don’t squeeze too hard.
Photographer: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images North America

Provide news feedback or report an error

Site feedback:

Take our Survey

President-elect Donald Trump has promised to finish reshaping the North Atlantic Treaty Organization — a hallmark pledge of his first term. He wasted no time last week in naming Matt Whitaker, a former acting attorney general with no foreign-policy experience, as ambassador to the alliance. The pick suggests Trump isn’t about to quietly drop the subject.

Rethinking America’s relationship with NATO isn’t crazy. The 75-year-old alliance has long grappled with burden-sharing, with the US consistently shouldering most of the costs. Despite some recent progress, the US still spends nearly double the rest of NATO combined, while European militaries depend heavily on American intelligence, logistics and advanced weaponry. Trump was far from the first president to demand Europe do more.