As America Falters, Poland Ascends

Trump’s America Pays the Price for Its Global Bullying

When British Defence Secretary John Healey met his American counterpart, Pete Hegseth, last Thursday, he made a pointed remark:

You challenged Europe to step up. You challenged us to step up on Ukraine, on defense spending, on European security. And I say to you that we have, we are, and we will further.

I have a great deal of respect for Healey, but in that moment, I wanted to bang my head against the wall. Europe needs to wake up to the reality that Trump and his team are fabricating excuses to undermine NATO and attack European allies. Right now, they claim NATO members aren’t spending enough. But if and when Europe meets the target, they’ll simply shift the goalposts and find another reason to complain.

Europe doesn’t need to look far for proof. Just consider how this administration treats NATO’s biggest defense spender, Poland. No NATO country—not even the United States—allocates as much of its GDP to defense. Poland’s 2024 military budget is 4.7% of GDP, compared to 3.4% in the U.S.