U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth pushed NATO allies to carry their weight in the alliance at a meeting with senior NATO officials in Brussels on Thursday. “Our allies must step up,” Hegseth said regarding NATO allies…

U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth pushed NATO allies to carry their weight in the alliance at a meeting with senior NATO officials in Brussels on Thursday.

“Our allies must step up,” Hegseth said regarding NATO allies at the meeting of the North Atlantic Council in the Defense Ministers’ Session in Brussels. This demand was made as the U.S. military continues to pull military assets from Europe as it looks toward the Middle East and Asia.

These demands have been made for years in both Trump administrations, and even during the Cold War, Hegseth said during his remarks at the meeting.

“President Trump has been very clear on this point for many years, and over two administrations, and for too long, NATO has been a paper tiger and a one-way street,” Hegseth said during the meeting. “Europe was not supposed to be a dependency of the United States. That’s not what Winston Churchill or Charles de Gaulle or Konrad Adenauer wanted or expected. No, Europe was supposed to be a military power allied with a strong America.”

“President Trump has made his disappointment with NATO and other allies clear, and he has consistently said that Europe must take greater responsibility for its own defense,” White House principal deputy press secretary Anna Kelly told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “President has effectively restored America’s standing on the world stage and strengthened relationships abroad – but he simultaneously will never allow the United States to be treated unfairly and taken advantage of by so-called ‘allies.’”

The U.S. Mission to NATO and the NATO press office did not respond to a request for comment. The Pentagon declined to comment.

This is all part of the new “NATO 3.0” plan to make Europe have a more self-reliant and independent military.

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“What we are seeing now is that NATO 3.0 is really happening,” NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said at the meeting, according to a NATO press release. “A stronger Europe in a stronger NATO.”

These goals include the push for each European NATO ally to commit 5% of its gross domestic product to defense spending.

“In 2025, European Allies … Canada invested over $90 billion more than the year before,” Rutte said in his opening statement at the meeting. “That’s an increase of nearly 20% in a single year and we already see, foreseeing, further increases when it comes to the books for 2026. To accelerate defence production and innovation in Europe and North America it is vital that we also turbocharge transatlantic defence cooperation. There is no other way.”

“Secretary Hegseth’s remarks today are an honest recognition of a changing strategic reality,” Anna Hardage, deputy director for American Security at the America First Policy Institute, told the 📰DCNF. “For too long, American taxpayers and service members have carried a disproportionate share of the burden for the defense of Europe. A greater European commitment to its own security is long overdue and reflects calls made by American leaders dating back to Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower.”

An unidentified military source leaked that the U.S. military plans to withdraw an estimated $50 billion worth of U.S. planes, ships and drones from NATO crisis response allocations, Reuters reported on Wednesday.

Rutte also expressed his support for the U.S. in the Iran War during his opening remarks at the meeting.

“Allies have long agreed that Iran cannot be allowed to have a nuclear weapon, and today as a result of U.S. action, they are further from that than at any time in recent memory,” Rutte said at the meeting. “We all are heartened by the prospects for peace following the U.S.-Iran agreement.”

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President Donald Trump signed a memorandum of understanding with the Iranian government at the Palace of Versailles in France on Wednesday, according to a video released by French President Emmanuel Macron in an X post.

The U.S. military’s posture in Europe is undoubtedly leaning toward exfiltration in NATO 3.0. However, Trump and Hegseth have repeatedly shuffled troops around the continent in the last few months.

The Department of War pulled roughly 4,000 U.S. soldiers from Europe, but Trump almost immediately announced plans to send 5,000 additional troops to Poland, effectively erasing the shift.

The United States remained NATO’s dominant defense spender at an estimated $980 billion in 2025, compared with $92.8 billion for the United Kingdom and $68.9 billion for France, while the smallest spenders included Montenegro at $188 million, North Macedonia at $402 million and Albania at $570 million, according to estimates from the Atlantic Council.

“Since Trump took office in 2025, Hegseth and the president have been unwavering in what it is they expect from NATO: that the alliance will pull its own weight in terms of defense funds spent and that Europe will take the lead in maintaining its defense,” the Department of War said in a Thursday press release.

These changes in the U.S. stance in Europe may be tied to the Russo-Ukrainian war, which continues to get hotter by the day.

Ukraine launched the largest drone attack on Moscow since the beginning of the war shortly after the proposed legislation was released on Thursday, Reuters reported, citing Andrei Vorobyov, the governor of Moscow Oblast. Also, a wave of Ukrainian drone attacks pounded the area around the Russian city of St. Petersburg on June 6, according to St. Petersburg Gov. Alexander Beglov’s verified Telegram account.

Russia continues to threaten attacks that would invoke NATO Article 5. “Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty states that an armed attack against one NATO member shall be considered an attack against them all,” according to NATO.

Russians threatened to attack specific drone factories in Great Britain, Denmark, Latvia and Germany as retaliation for strikes inside Russia in a Telegram post on April 15. The Russians also launched an Oreshnik missile, 600 strike drones and 90 air-, sea- and ground-launched missiles at Kyiv on May 24, The Associated Press reported, citing the Ukrainian Air Force.

The recently leaked changes to the U.S. military in Europe would significantly reduce the availability of U.S. assets in an Article 5 situation. Hegseth mentioned that NATO will now need European strength to handle Article 5, rather than relying on the U.S. military.

“Return the alliance to its roots as a military alliance and ensure that it has the European strength required to sustainably deter aggression, and if need be, make good on Article Five,” Hegseth said during the meeting.

“A stronger NATO begins with stronger allies,” Hardage told the 📰DCNF. “When every member invests in its own defense, the Alliance becomes more capable, more resilient, and better positioned to deter threats. That approach serves America’s interests, strengthens transatlantic security, and is essential to preserving peace through strength for generations to come.”

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