Trump’s Loose NATO Talk Already Has Endangered Us

[pampango]

22. Politifact: For 2016, NATO’s total military budget is about $2 billion. The US pays 22%, Germany 15%

Politifact:

For 2016, NATO’s total military budget is about $2 billion. (... we’ll ignore the civilian costs, which are about $200 million.)

Each member contributes an agreed upon percentage of the shared budget. The United States leads the pack, paying 22 percent, as Samp said. This year, that comes to about $460 million. (Germany comes in second, paying about 15 percent.)

The alliance sums up the total defense budgets of its members and counts that as its resources. By that measure, the United States represents about 72 percent of NATO. But that hardly captures America’s role because its defense budget is shaped by factors outside of Europe.

On the other hand, NATO has common military expenses on the order of $2 billion a year. The U.S. share of that is about 22 percent. But those dollars exclude the vast spending it takes to sustain American forces, equipment and bases across Europe. And in a final twist, even those expenditures aren’t solely for the benefit of Europe.

If you add up all NATO countries defense budgets, ours is 72% of the total. Obviously, all of our bloated military spending is not dedicated to NATO by any means.

If Trump eliminates the ~$440 million we spend annually on NATO's common military expenses that will reduce defense spending by less than 1/10 of 1%. And he has pledged to raise defense spending at any rate to 'restore' our military. If he is not an isolationist, I am not sure why he cares so much about 0.08% of the defense budget which he wants to grow anyway.