America Trumps Allies in Defense Spending

Before leaving for Greece on his last overseas trip as U.S. President, Barack Obama sought to reassure worried European NATO partners as to America’s commitment to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. During his ferocious campaign president elect Donald Trump had lashed out against the European allies for not shouldering their fair share in defense spending to support NATO.

Indeed, the Unites States outspends all its allies when it comes to the military, as our graphic shows. In contrast, many nations in NATO are lagging in their defense spending – failing to meet the pledged 2% of GDP. This will likely be one of the topics set to be discussed at the meeting of EU defense ministers in Brussels on Tuesday.

The Greek have the second highest defense expenditure of NATO countries calculated as a percentage of gross domestic product in 2016. Europe’s economic powerhouse Germany is for historical reasons a defense expenditure dwarf.