DOHA, Qatar — U.S. Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker warned European allies, Dec. 6, that they must spend significantly more on defense or risk turning the continent into a “museum.” The remarks came as Matthew Whitaker defended the Trump administration’s new National Security Strategy, which demands richer partners shoulder more of NATO’s burden, Dec. 25, 2025.
Matthew Whitaker doubles down on defense spending pressure
In a conversation with Chatham House CEO Bronwen Maddox at the Doha Forum, Matthew Whitaker said allies have “underspent over the last several decades” and that Washington will no longer treat the alliance as “a one-way street.” He framed the debate as whether Europe can remain “a dynamic economy that can grow” or “just a museum,” according to a Chatham House summary of the exchange.
The National Security Strategy makes burden-sharing a central theme, declaring that “the days of the United States propping up the entire world order like Atlas are over.” The document points to what it calls the “Hague Commitment,” saying NATO nations have endorsed a goal of spending 5% of gross domestic product on defense and related security needs.
That tougher posture is already reshaping debate inside the alliance. A Reuters analysis said Matthew Whitaker has prodded allies to consider larger leadership roles that Washington long treated as U.S.-led, including suggesting Germany might eventually volunteer to take over the Supreme Allied Commander Europe post.
The math behind the new NATO spending target
The spending goal Whitaker cites is not a simple rewrite of the long-running 2% benchmark. NATO says allies agreed at the 2025 summit in The Hague to aim for 5% of GDP each year by 2035, split between at least 3.5% for core defense requirements and up to 1.5% for defense- and security-related investments such as resilience and infrastructure, according to NATO’s explainer on the 5% commitment. NATO also says all allies are expected to meet or exceed the earlier 2% spending target in 2025, compared with only three in 2014.
The argument, however, is older than any single strategy document. NATO leaders in 2014 urged members to halt declines in defense budgets and aim toward spending 2% of GDP within a decade, as set out in the Wales Summit declaration. Trump raised the pressure at a 2018 summit by telling allies they should push spending to 4% of GDP, according to Reuters’ reporting from Brussels. By 2024, the alliance was already moving closer to the 2% goal: a 2024 Reuters report said more than 20 members were expected to meet the benchmark that year.
For Matthew Whitaker, the next test will be whether bigger budgets produce capabilities fast enough to deter threats and refill stockpiles. European leaders, meanwhile, face the political reality of selling sustained increases at home — while deciding whether Washington’s sharper rhetoric is negotiating leverage or a lasting rewrite of the trans-Atlantic deal.
