U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio made waves today with sharp remarks aimed at America’s wealthy Western European NATO allies, declaring that the United States can no longer shoulder the burden of their defense budgets at the expense of American taxpayers. Speaking in an interview with Fox News, Rubio criticized nations he described as having “plenty of money” for failing to invest adequately in their own national security.
“These are rich countries, especially in Western Europe,” Rubio said. “They should be putting that money into their own defense, and they’re not. We just can’t keep subsidizing that.” His comments come amid ongoing debates over burden-sharing within the 75-year-old alliance, a recurring tension that has flared under multiple U.S. administrations.
Rubio’s remarks were spurred by recent statements from German politician Friedrich Merz, leader of the Christian Democratic Union, who warned that NATO’s future was at risk due to what he called Washington’s “indifference” to European security. Rubio pushed back hard, insisting that the real threat to NATO lies not in U.S. policy but in the inaction of its European members. “The only thing that puts NATO in jeopardy is that we have allies who barely have militaries—or ones that aren’t very capable—because they’ve spent decades not spending on it,” he said.
The Secretary of State pointed to the disparity in defense spending, noting that while the U.S. commits around 3.4% of its GDP to its military, many Western European nations hover between 1% and 1.5%. NATO’s agreed-upon target is 2%, a benchmark several allies still fail to meet. Rubio echoed a sentiment long championed by President Donald Trump, who has threatened to rethink U.S. commitment to the alliance if partners don’t “pay their bills.”
“Is it unreasonable for the United States to ask rich European countries to invest more in their own security?” Rubio asked rhetorically. His remarks signal a tougher stance from the Trump administration, which has made burden-sharing a cornerstone of its foreign policy.
