Nato should be worried about Donald Trump

When it comes to Donald Trump’s relationship with Nato, there are two principal schools of thought. The first, articulated by Trump’s own former national security advisor, John Bolton, is that the president-elect is hostile to the alliance at an elemental and instinctive level. The second, proposed by those who are favourable to him, argues that Trump’s inflammatory language about Nato’s failures is a performance, which in the past goaded fellow member states into increasing their defence spending. Look not, they say, at what he says, but at the results.

It is indisputable that the financial commitments of member states to Nato now are much higher than when Trump first assumed the presidency in 2017. At that time, only four countries – the United States, the United Kingdom, Greece and Estonia – spent more than 2 per cent of their GDP on defence, an agreed minimum since 2006. That was undoubtedly a grotesque dereliction of duty.