Trump Administration Gets Germany to Pull More of Its Weight by Increasing Defense Spending
Jose Nino
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Deutsche Welle reported that total military spending at the global level reached $1.9 trillion (€1.7 trillion) in 2019.
This represented the highest total in real terms since 1988.
In Germany’s case, spending increased by 10 percent to 49.3 billion. Germany’s increase in spending was the largest spike in defense spending among the world’s top 15 countries.
“There’s been pressure on Germany to increase its military expenditure since before the Trump administration,” declared Max Mutschler from the Bonn International Center for Conversion (BICC), a foreign policy research institute. “The impact of this pressure is now becoming clear. However, one has to say that expenditure is still well below the 2% mark.”
During a NATO summit in Wales in 2014, members reached an agreement to pitch in at least 2% of their GDP on defense within the next decade. In 2019, Germany’s military expenditure accounted for 1.38 percent of its GDP.
Throughout his presidency, President Donald Trump has made it a point for NATO countries to pull their own weight in terms of defense spending.
So far, it seems his pressure has made an impact.
It’s been over 70 years since World War II concluded.
The U.S. no longer has to be the world’s policeman.
Countries will now have to pull their own weight and not have to rely on the U.S. to always save them.
The Trump administration offers a fresh perspective to the defense-industry controlled administrations of his predecessors,
Although he still has work to do in terms of getting out of never-ending wars in the Middle East, Trump has shown that he can get some progress made on foreign policy matters.
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