President-elect Donald Trump has caused an uproar in Europe over his demand that NATO members increase their military spending to 5% of GDP. “I don’t think it will be 5%, which at this time would be impossible for almost all the nations in the world,” Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto said in the Italian parliament on Jan. 8, reported Politico. Twenty-three of NATO’s 32 members are above NATO’s target of 2%, but none is at 5%. Poland comes the closest at 4.12%.
“Europe is in for a tiny fraction of the money that we’re in [for],” Trump said during his Jan. 7 press conference. “We have a thing called the ocean in between us, right? Why are we in for billions and billions of dollars more money than Europe?”
