Trump publicly commits to NATO mutual-defense provision

Weeks after omitting any mention of NATO’s collective defense provisions during a speech at the treaty organization’s headquarters, President Donald Trump on Friday explicitly recommitted the U.S. to its Article 5 obligations.

“Well, I'm committing the United States, and have committed, but I'm committing the United States to Article 5,” the president said in response to a question from a Romanian reporter. “Yes, absolutely I'd be committed to Article 5.”


Trump disappointed and surprised even some members of his own national security team with his remarks last month at NATO's Brussels offices, where a segment of his speech specifically reaffirming the U.S. government's support for the treaty's all-for-one, one-for-all defense provision, also known as Article 5, was removed at the last minute. The language was supported by national security adviser H.R. McMaster, Defense Secretary James Mattis and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, according to reporting by POLITICO Magazine, and it remained in the president's remarks as late as the morning of the speech.

In the wake of the president's remarks, White House officials argued that the president's sheer presence at the NATO event should have been enough to show his commitment to Article 5 and disputed the notion that U.S. dedication to it was anything but absolute.

Trump had been critical of NATO since his presidential campaign, when he labeled the treaty “obsolete” and openly questioned whether the U.S. would make good on the treaty’s communal defense obligations for nations who have not spent enough on their own militaries. As president, he has railed against NATO members who do not spend the agreed-upon 2 percent of their gross domestic product on defense and has claimed credit for increasing military spending among member states.

“Certainly we are there to protect and that's one of the reasons that I want people to make sure we have a very, very strong force, by paying the kind of money necessary to have that force,” Trump said.