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President Trump on Wednesday held a press conference at the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, where he boasted about America’s strength on the world stage and told the alliance who the boss is. 

“We have the strongest military in the world by far, not even close, everybody admits it,” Trump declared before touting his success in increasing NATO members’ defense spending.

At last year’s NATO summit in The Hague, Netherlands, Trump forced NATO members to raise defense spending targets from 2% to 5% of GDP instead of the US footing the bill for Europe, like Biden, the Democrats, and worthless Republicans in Congress. In 2024, the U.S. spent $997 billion on defense, more than double the $485 billion spent by all European NATO members combined.

Still, “the United States remains by far the largest contributor to NATO monetarily, and maybe otherwise, and the strongest military anywhere in the world,” Trump noted.

“They respect us as a country again. They didn’t respect us two years ago,” he added, referencing the Biden years, where “they laughed at us.”

“NATO laughed at us. Everybody laughed at us. They don’t laugh anymore. There’s no more laughing.”

Trump further revealed the “tremendous unity” among NATO allies, with “the respect and the love” from European leaders for the United States. “They like the job I’m doing. They said, ‘We love, sir, we love you,’” said Trump.  “These are grown people saying that. Isn’t that nice?”

WATCH:

Transcript:

Trump: We have the strongest military in the world by far, not even close, everybody admits it. Last year’s summit in the Netherlands was great also, and we achieved an unprecedented agreement to increase the annual defense spending, and it’s the benchmark, raising it from 2% to 5% of GDP, which everybody said was impossible. And now they’re all thanking me, and most of the countries have agreed to it. We have a couple of— couple of that didn’t, but I have a feeling they’re going to, and pretty quickly. In fact, today they were very positive.

One of them, in particular was I didn’t think a good team player; today was a great team player. As all of the leaders understand very well, the United States remains by far the largest contributor to NATO monetarily, and maybe otherwise, and the strongest military anywhere in the world, and they respect us as a country again.

They didn’t respect us two years ago. They laughed at us. NATO laughed at us. Everybody laughed at us. They don’t laugh anymore. There’s no more laughing. This year, we invested a record $1 trillion in our armed forces, and we’re going to be asking for $1.5 trillion coming up.

We have the money being spent on the best equipment anywhere in the world. In the working session this morning, we discussed the progress other members are making toward the 5% target, and they’re making great progress. Many of these countries are very rich, by the way. We don’t have to feel sorry for them, but it doesn’t mean they’re properly protected. There’s a big difference.

Some have truly answered the call, and others are making big changes and will be answering the call. I think I can say, in all cases, they’re going to be answering the call, and we’ll be taking in over a trillion dollars a year toward defense, and that’s a tremendous amount of money. It’s a big up. They were 2%, they were actually at 1%— I got them to 2% and I wanted to get them to five, and we got up to five the last time.

And they’re, you know, just again, if you could have seen the respect and the love in the room, and it’s love, really, for the country, for our country. I don’t want to say me, because you’ll say, ‘Oh, he’s so conceited, he’s such a conceited person,’ but they do. I mean, you know, they, they like the job I’m doing. They said, ‘We love, sir, we love you.’ These are grown people saying that. Isn’t that nice?

Maybe, I don’t know, maybe they’re trying to get to me, and in a way they did because there was tremendous unity in that room, and I urge all nations to accelerate their plans to get the benchmark as quickly as possible.

The benchmark is going to be that 5% number. That’s the number it should have been for years. As a result of the commitment we achieved last year, defense spending of other NATO members surged by more than almost $150 billion in 2025, and much of that money is being spent on American-made equipment. They all want American-made equipment.

We’re pushing very hard to have the defense companies; they’re great, we make the best equipment, the Patriots and the Tomahawks, and everything we have is considered to be the best. Not by me, it’s everybody wants it. I wish we made it faster, because we could sell as much as we could make.

Jordan Conradson Jordan Conradson is The Gateway Pundit's White House correspondent. Jordan has played a critical role in exposing fraud and corruption in Arizona's elections and elected officials. His reporting on election crimes in Maricopa County led to the resignation of one election official, and he was later banned from the Maricopa County press room for his courage in pursuit of the truth. TGP and Jordan finally gained access after suing Maricopa County, America's fourth largest county, and winning at the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. Conradson looks forward to bringing his aggressive style of journalism to the Swamp.

You can email Jordan Conradson here, and read more of Jordan Conradson's articles here.

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