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THE HAGUE — President Donald Trump fell short Tuesday of fully endorsing Washington's promise to defend its allies, saying of NATO nations that "I'm committed to being their friends" but that whether he is committed to their mutual defense "depends on your definition."
The comments on Air Force One as Trump flew to a gathering of NATO leaders in the Netherlands unsettled some officials in the defense alliance, which during Trump's years in office has repeatedly been roiled by his mixed attitudes toward common defense. During his second term, Trump has mostly taken a gentler approach to the alliance than he did in his first term, saying that he appreciated Europe's rising defense spending.
Asked whether he was committed to "Article V," which is NATO's security guarantee that treats an attack on one NATO nation as an attack on the alliance as a whole, Trump said that "it depends on your definition. There's numerous definitions of Article V. You know that, right?"
"But I'm committed to being their friends. You know, I've become friends with many of those leaders, and I'm committed to helping them," he said.
Trump added: "I'm committed to saving lives. I'm committed to life and safety. And I'm going to give you an exact definition when I get there. I just don't want to do it on the back of an airplane."
The U.S. leader and his team have generally been positive about NATO in recent months amid a military buildup in Europe following Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine. NATO leaders are set on Wednesday to endorse a plan pushed by Trump to boost their defense spending to 5 percent of their annual economic turnover, a significant rise from the current 2 percent target.
European nations need to "stop worrying" about the U.S. commitment to NATO so long as they hike their military spending, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said at the start of the two-day leaders' summit in The Hague, hours before Trump was set to arrive and before his comments on Air Force One.
"There is total commitment by the U.S. president and the U.S. senior leadership to NATO," Rutte told a public forum. Still, he added, this comes with a U.S. "expectation" that European countries and Canada "deal with this huge irritant" that they don't spend more on their defenses.
"My message to my European colleagues is stop worrying so much. Start to make sure that you get investment plans done, that you get the industrial base open and running, that the support for Ukraine remains at a higher level," Rutte added.
"This is what you should work on, and stop running around being worried about the U.S.," he said. "They are there. They are with us."
Trump also posted multiple positive comments about the defense alliance on Truth Social while on board Air Force One on Tuesday, saying that he was "heading to NATO where, at worst, it will be a much calmer period than what I just went through with Israel and Iran. I look forward to seeing all of my very good European friends, and others. Hopefully, much will be accomplished!"
Still, Trump has repeatedly expressed his desire to improve relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin, something that unsettles European policymakers who view the Kremlin as their principal security threat.
NATO intelligence assessments are that Putin continues to believe that attacking an alliance country would be a major risk and that he thinks security guarantees remain in place, a senior NATO official said Tuesday, briefing reporters under ground rules of anonymity.
"I don't know that Putin is really looking for a lot of nuance in definitions," the official said. "From his perspective, he does not want war with NATO. It would not work out well for him. He knows that. And so I think that his broad confidence in Article V remains quite solid."