President Donald Trump speaks alongside Secretary of State Marco Rubio during a cabinet meeting Wednesday at the White House in Washington, D.C. (Kent Nishimura – AFP / Getty Images)
By Joe Saunders May 27, 2026 at 1:17pm
The enemies of the United States have learned that President Donald Trump is not to be taken lightly.
And, according to a German news outlet report Tuesday, the country’s allies are getting the same message from Secretary of War Pete Hegseth:
Actions have consequences.
Furious and frustrated with a North American Treaty Alliance that only seems to go one way, the Trump administration is cutting the number of weapons systems it’s willing to contribute to NATO actions, Der Spiegel reported, according to Reuters.
The U.S. is scaling back the forces it plans to send to Europe in a crisis, a fresh step by the Trump administration to shrink its military support for NATO allies https://t.co/Q9Jck1raX3
— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) May 27, 2026
In the air, the U.S. will halve the number of strategic bombers it makes available for the alliance, the outlet reported. It will reduce the number of fighter jets by a third.
At sea, the U.S. Navy will contribute fewer destroyers and cut out submarines entirely, according to Reuters.
And when it comes to reconnaissance drones, the Europeans will have to come up with their own.
It isn’t hard to see why.
The so-called allies have been a no-show in the U.S. fighting with Iran. Beholden to their own swelling Muslim populations and historical antipathy toward Israel, NATO countries have been unwilling to assist in any meaningful way.
As the leftist U.K. Guardian reported Friday:
“Spain refused to allow U.S. bases in the country or its airspace to be used for the attack on Iran, while France only allowed air tankers and other support aircraft to be used from the Istres air base in the south.
“The U.K. permitted the U.S. Air Force to bomb Iranian missile launchers and any other military assets obstructing the strait from Fairford in Gloucestershire, the furthest any European country was willing to go in enabling U.S. bombing.”
Germany’s Chancellor Friedrich Merz, meanwhile, in April, said the Trump administration was being “humiliated” by the Iranians, while offering precious little to help. As The Associated Press reported in April, Germany has offered minesweepers to help clear the Strait of Hormuz, the international seaway that has been closed by Iran — but the offer is good only when the fighting is over.
With friends like that, who needs alliances?
Trump’s secret NATO ultimatum sparks panic as US ‘pulls jets, bombers and EVERY submarine from Europe’ https://t.co/XDEXwkK31K
— Daily Mail (@DailyMail) May 26, 2026
The U.K. Daily Mail, a conservative news outlet, described the European reaction in a headline as “panic.”
“The U.S. accounts for roughly 62 percent of total defense spending across NATO, with an annual military budget of around $980 billion,” the Daily Mail reported.
Look at that number again — 62 percent. There are 32 member countries in NATO, and one country — the United States — pays almost two-thirds of the bill. And for that oversized contribution, what does the country get from the major partners in that alliance?
Talk-to-the-hand refusals to cooperate from Spain and France. A limited, grudging willingness to go along from the U.K. And from Germany — it gets unconstructive insults.
That’s nothing particularly new, of course. The Europeans have shown a similar lack of enthusiasm to help the United States — and Israel — for generations.
Do you support Trump’s decision to withdraw large amounts of U.S. military equipment from NATO?
During the 1973 Yom Kippur War, for instance, the United States supplied Israel with vitally needed military equipment by air as its European allies — except for Portugal — closed their airspace. For 32 days, the U.S. Air Force flew weapons — ammunition, tanks, and artillery — from the U.S. to the Portuguese-controlled Azores, and then to Israel, crossing the Mediterranean in its center to avoid the airspace of the “allies” to the north and the hostile nations to the south.
Other American presidents have gotten used to the idea that the NATO alliance is a one-way street — essentially permitting the American taxpayer to foot the bill for European defense, which in turn allows European governments to use their own money to pay for socialist welfare schemes that are going broke anyway.
But by now, Trump has clearly seen enough of it to do something about it.
Even toddlers learn early in life that actions have consequences. The NATO “allies” should be learning it now.
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Joe has spent more than 30 years as a reporter, copy editor and metro desk editor in newsrooms in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Florida. He’s been with Liftable Media since 2015.
Joe has spent more than 30 years as a reporter, copy editor and metro editor in newsrooms in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Florida. He’s been with Liftable Media since 2015. Largely a product of Catholic schools, who discovered Ayn Rand in college, Joe is a lifelong newspaperman who learned enough about the trade to be skeptical of every word ever written. He was also lucky enough to have a job that didn’t need a printing press to do it.
Birthplace
Philadelphia
Nationality
American
