WASHINGTON — National Security Adviser Mike Waltz demanded Tuesday that European nations “step up” their defense spending to 5% of GDP, prodding NATO allies on the eve of critical Ukraine-Russia peace talks in the UK — and as President Trump’s administration threatens to walk away.
Waltz in an interview Tuesday on “Real America’s Voice” highlighted how Trump had called for the defense spending in his first term to rise from a “bare minimum” of 2% of GDP — and has since made clear Europe must prepare to meet its own security needs with all nations meeting the 5% threshold.
“President Trump is saying ‘no.’ You need make-up money, so to speak. You need to all be at 5%,” he said. “And, you know, a key pillar of this is that Europe take the lead for its own security.”
Several European countries weren’t even meeting the 2% defense spending level in Trump’s first term — before he asked NATO nations to pony up double that amount in 2018.
Waltz knocked Canada in particular for promising to hike its own security budget — only to back down from meeting the 4% defense spending level.
“He is going to continue to demand 5% of their GDP heading into a big NATO summit this year,” the national security adviser affirmed.
“And that’s when you look at countries like Canada who a decade ago committed to do the minimum 2% still isn’t there and is saying a decade from now it’ll be at the minimum.”
As of last year, NATO’s defense spending levels hovered around 2.7% of GDP on average.
The stern order from Trump’s national security adviser came before foreign leaders met in London Wednesday to discuss a US-proposed peace plan to wind down Russia’s more than three-year war against Ukraine.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio — who warned last Friday that the US will “move on” from the peace negotiations in “a matter of days” if an agreement can’t be reached — declined to attend at the last minute and was replaced by Ukraine envoy and retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg.
Trump earlier Wednesday had also lashed out at Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for making it “so difficult to settle this War” by issuing a statement opposing terms of his “final offer” peace plan that would have the US formally recognize Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014.
“This statement is very harmful to the Peace Negotiations with Russia in that Crimea was lost years ago under the auspices of President Barack Hussein Obama, and is not even a point of discussion,” the president posted on his Truth Social.
“Nobody is asking Zelenskyy to recognize Crimea as Russian Territory but, if he wants Crimea, why didn’t they fight for it eleven years ago when it was handed over to Russia without a shot being fired?”
A senior administration official told The Post that the acknowledgment of the Crimean peninsula as Russian territory would be a major foreign policy shift — and potentially cut against the Welles Declaration, which bars the US from admitting to “the occupation of a foreign land by another nation.”
Under the agreement, there would also be “de facto” recognition of Russia’s occupation in eastern Ukrainian territory, a pledge to keep Ukraine from joining NATO, an end to some economic sanctions against Russia and a promise for cooperation between it and the US on energy and industrial projects.
By contrast, Ukraine would get “a robust security guarantee” if a cease-fire is agreed to, a portion of territory in Kharkiv returned from Russian occupation, navigation rights in the Dnieper River which borders the front lines of the conflict and economic assistance in rebuilding after the war.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said later Wednesday that Trump remained “frustrated” at the peace negotiations stalling out due to what he called Zelensky’s “inflammatory statements” to the press.
“The President’s national security team, his advisors, have exuded significant time, energy and effort to try to bring this war to an end,” Leavitt said.
“The American taxpayer has funded billions of dollars in this effort, and enough is enough. The President frustrated. His patience is running very thin. He wants to do what’s right for the world. He wants to see peace. He wants to see the killing stop but you need both sides of the war willing to do that, and unfortunately President Zelensky seems to be moving in the wrong direction.”
But asked whether the US will leave the negotiating if Zelensky doesn’t sign onto the agreement Wednesday, Leavitt added: “Not by the end of the day today, but the President has maintained that his frustration is growing and he needs to see this thing come to an end.”
Elsewhere in his interview, Waltz also touted successes in ongoing diplomatic talks with nations neighboring Israel to build off the historic Abraham Accords signed during Trump’s first term — as well as dozens of fatal airstrikes against terror leaders in the Middle East.
“President Trump has eliminated 74 named terrorist leaders that the Biden administration wasn’t going after,” the national security adviser said. “You add to that 45 Americans who are being held hostage by various regimes and groups around the world that he’s brought home and that is just an incredible achievement in just a couple of months.”
“Americans should sleep better at night,” he added. “We’re only three months in, and look at the results President Trump is getting. The mainstream media doesn’t want to talk about those.”
