OPINION — Donald Trump got one big thing right about the North Atlantic Treaty Organization: European democracies aren’t investing enough in their security.
Of course, this was far from an original insight. A procession of predecessors in the Oval Office had the same complaint.
Nevertheless, it is fair to at least partially credit Trump’s belligerence about the matter for a change in direction. Higher defense expenditures started even before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and doubts about American reliability concentrated European minds on their vulnerability.
