At the Munich “Reality Check,” held February 13–14, 2026, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte delivered a blunt message to European leaders and the global press. In a doorstep address at the Munich Security Conference, he said the era of “worrying about the U.S.” must end. Rather than distancing himself from President Donald Trump’s criticism, Rutte credited Trump’s “wake-up call” for making NATO “stronger than ever since the fall of the Berlin Wall.”
Rutte argued that Trump’s pressure eliminated the long-standing defense spending gap that strained the alliance and anchored the United States more firmly in NATO. Allies are now working toward a 5 percent of GDP defense target, agreed upon at the June 2025 Hague Summit, a dramatic leap from the old 2 percent benchmark.
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