Trump considering major NATO policy shift

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President Donald Trump is considering a major change to the U.S.’ participation in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, according to three current and former senior U.S. officials and one congressional official.

Trump has discussed with aides the possibility of calibrating America’s NATO engagement in a way that favors members of the alliance that spend a set percentage of their gross domestic product on defense, the officials said.

As part of the potential policy shift, the U.S. might not defend a fellow NATO member that is attacked if the country doesn’t meet the defense spending threshold, the officials said. If Trump does make that change, it would mark a significant shift from a core tenet of the alliance known as Article 5, which says that an attack on any NATO country is an attack on all of them.

The president is similarly considering a policy change in which the U.S. may choose to prioritize military exercises with NATO members that are spending the set percentage of their GDPs on defense, the officials said. His administration has already signaled to America’s European allies that the U.S. could reduce its military presence in Europe, and one option now under consideration is to reposition some U.S. troops in the region so they are focused in or around NATO countries that have scaled their defense spending to meet the specific percentage of their GDPs, the officials said.

Asked about Trump considering making these changes to how the U.S. engages with NATO, a National Security Council official said in a written statement, “President Trump is committed to NATO and Article V.”

Sen. Chris Coons, of Delaware, the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee for Defense and a senior senator on the Foreign Relations panel, said Trump’s nominee to be U.S. ambassador to NATO, Matthew Whitaker, “gave very reassuring answers” on the administration’s commitment to NATO and Article 5.