President Donald Trump’s trip to a NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, this week has European allies scrambling to keep him happy.
But the United Kingdom is showing up without a definite plan for reaching an important defense spending benchmark, according to Politico, who wrote that European leaders were desperate to avoid a Trump ‘blow-up.’
The US President is expected to leave Monday evening for the two-day summit, where leaders from all 32 member countries will be there.
He is expected to meet with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa during the summit.
Trump will also be looking to evaluate NATO’s progress on defense spending goals, a point of long-standing friction between Trump and Europe.
NATO countries have committed to spending 3.5 percent of GDP on defense by 2035.
But outgoing UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s latest plan for future defense budgeting contains no clear strategy for hitting the 3.5 percent benchmark, leaving his expected successor Andy Burnham in a difficult situation.
UK Defense Secretary Dan Jarvis told Politico that making a plan for the benchmark was ‘mission critical,’ adding that while in Ankara he would emphasize his desire to make a plan.
(L-R) German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, US President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron during theJune G7 Summit in France
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte (L) meets with US President Donald Trump in the Oval Office in June
Starmer, who is about to leave office, handed down a difficult defense spending situation to his successor
But a research fellow at King’s College London was unimpressed by Jarvis’s assurances.
‘Our allies want us to have fully funded, accelerated plans to reach the 3.5 percent commitment,’ Sophia Gaston told Politico of the NATO summit. ‘They also want consistency and clarity of leadership. We will be bringing neither.’
Just last week, the President renewed his criticisms of Europe’s defense spending when he posted a chart comparing several countries’ defense budgets to that of the US.
‘Ridiculous for the USA to continue along this one sided path when the relationship is not reciprocal,’ he captioned the post.
The spending numbers in his chart appeared similar to those in a NATO release based on data through last June that projected 2025 defense spending by NATO countries.
Total US defense spending dwarfs that of NATO allies, though it is not the largest as a percentage of GDP.
The President has also sharply criticized the alliance for its relatively hands-off approach to the war in Iran, telling multiple news outlets earlier this year that he was considering withdrawing the US from the alliance.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has flattered Trump in an effort to preserve US involvement with the alliance while touting progress towards NATO spending goals.
Rutte arrives at Ankara Airport on Monday ahead of the summit
The President also suggested that he had seriously considered not attending this week’s summit.
He credited Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan with getting him to come.
‘Except for the fact that [the summit] was being held in Turkey by President Erdogan,’ Trump told reporters before a June meeting with Rutte, ‘I don’t think I would have gone to it.’
