Trump’s delivered this ‘ENORMOUS WIN’ for US, global security, says NATO ambassador

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00:00So in a big win for President Trump, nearly all NATO allies signed a pledge to boost military spending.

00:07The president had long called on Europe to contribute more for its own defense,

00:12and he applauds the world leaders who are stepping up.

00:16And as you know, it was 2% and we got it up to 5%.

00:22And they said, a couple of them came up to me, one in particular said,

00:25sir, we've been trying to get it up to 3% for 20 years and we haven't been able,

00:29and you got it up to 5%.

00:31So they're going to be, most of them, I guess almost all of them are going to be contributing now,

00:355%, a number that people are surprised at, but you need it today.

00:43Let's bring in U.S. Ambassador to NATO, Matt Whitaker.

00:47Ambassador Whitaker, why are the, you know, these NATO countries,

00:52why are they suddenly so willing to up their defense spending?

00:57Well, I think there's several reasons, you know.

00:59First is, obviously, we live in a very dangerous world, you know, here in Europe

01:04and across the Euro-Atlantic alliance, you know, Russia and their, you know,

01:09war in Ukraine has, I think, opened a lot of eyes as to,

01:13especially on the eastern flank of NATO with the Baltics and Poland and others,

01:18that they have had to recalculate their security situation.

01:22I think you also see a global security posture that is equally dangerous.

01:29But, you know, John, what really happened was Donald Trump was elected.

01:33And by his election and him insisting that our European allies step up,

01:39equalize with the United States and do so much more to provide for their own defense,

01:43that's what's really changed this.

01:45And so it took many of these countries 11 years to get to 2 percent.

01:50And now, you know, over the next decade, we're going to see some allies

01:54almost are at 5 percent right now, and all of the allies will be there.

01:58And so it's an exciting moment here at NATO.

02:02And at the same time, you know, the security posture

02:04and the security needs across the alliance just require a lot more investment.

02:09Here's the ranking we have right now, topping the list ahead,

02:13even of the United States, according to this research, is Poland.

02:17Now, they've got Ukraine right next door.

02:20And obviously, there are a lot of concerns in Poland

02:23about what the Russians might want to do.

02:26But Poland, number one on the list at 4.12 percent of their GDP.

02:31Then little Estonia comes in at 3.43 percent.

02:34And the U.S. just behind them at 3.38 percent.

02:38Spain down there at the bottom at 1.28.

02:41But you say everybody is going to be boosting their spending.

02:46Yeah.

02:47And, you know, what we're seeing, John,

02:49is that not only are they going to be boosting their spending,

02:52they are already boosting their spending.

02:54You know, we've seen just in the last year,

02:59really since the election of Donald Trump in November,

03:01you've seen hundreds of billions of dollars being spent on defense

03:07and the needed upgrades.

03:09And I saw that firsthand when I visited the tank plant in Lima, Ohio.

03:14And I saw Polish tanks rolling off the line there in Lima, Ohio.

03:19And you see it with F-35s.

03:21We just had Great Britain announce the purchase of dual capability F-35s.

03:27And so, you know, there's a lot of needs, a lot of upgrades,

03:30and a lot of security requirements

03:33that are going to be necessary over the next decade.

03:36And I'm excited that our allies are finally investing.

03:39You know, the United States spends almost a trillion dollars

03:41on its own defense in the defense of our allies.

03:45And so it's good to see everyone trying to meet

03:46and equalize with us at that.

03:48None other than the Secretary General of NATO,

03:51Mark Rudy, says that President Trump gets the credit here

03:54for this boost in defense spending.

03:57Listen to the Secretary.

04:00I mean, would you ever think that this would be the result of this summit

04:03if he would not have been re-elected president?

04:05Do you really think that seven or eight countries who said,

04:08yeah, somewhere in the 2030s, we might meet the 2 percent,

04:11we've now all decided in the last four or five months to get to 2 percent?

04:15So doesn't he deserve some grace?

04:17It's kind of rare for Europeans to, you know, praise an American leader,

04:24but he seems pretty happy with what President Trump has engineered here.

04:29Yeah, all allies should be happy

04:31because what we also saw after the Iranian bombing

04:35by the United States military

04:36is our allies wanted to be a part of that.

04:39They wanted to be allied with a country that can do that,

04:42that can fly bombers from Kansas City with unseen bomb

04:47and return home and have dinner with their families.

04:50And so, you know, that's why our allies want to come alongside,

04:55shoulder to shoulder with the United States of America.

04:57But Mark Ruta is absolutely right.

04:59Donald Trump deserves the credit for this.

05:01He is the one that drove this deal.

05:03He's the one that urged our allies

05:05to spend a lot more on their own defense

05:08and the collective defense.

05:09And he has delivered an enormous win for the American people

05:13and for global security.

05:16In some respects, you have to wonder

05:18whether Vladimir Putin made a colossal miscalculation here

05:22with his invasion of Ukraine,

05:24because he seems to have, you know,

05:27helped steal NATO, if you will,

05:30S-T-W-L, steal NATO against the possibility

05:34of further Russian invasions.

05:35Yeah, John, that's a very insightful point.

05:39I think, you know, NATO allies have all laser-focused

05:42back on their own defense and security.

05:46They've done away with all the unnecessary things,

05:50all of the expeditionary ideas that the alliance had,

05:55and they are focused on Russia,

05:57especially here in Europe.

05:59And at the same time, remember, Sweden and Finland

06:02joined the alliance over the last couple of years as well,

06:05which has really added two very capable allies

06:08to the alliance and made it much stronger

06:10with their industrial capacity and their militaries.

06:14Matt Whitaker, the ambassador to NATO.

06:16It's good to have you on.

06:18Yeah, good to see you, John.

06:19Thank you, too.

06:19Hey, Sean Hannity here.

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