INTERNACIONAL
Examining NATO: Inside the ‘commitment gap’ as US carries alliance deterrence
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This is part one of a series examining the challenges confronting the NATO alliance.
As President Donald Trump ramps up pressure on NATO allies to increase defense spending — and orders the withdrawal of 5,000 U.S. troops from Germany over the next six to 12 months — a deeper issue is coming into focus: even as allied budgets rise, NATO still depends heavily on American military power to function.
NATO’s imbalance is not theoretical — and it is not new, retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg told Fox News Digital, «I told the president… maybe you ought to talk about a tiered relationship with NATO,» Kellogg described conversations with Donald Trump in his first term about the alliance’s future. «…we need to develop a new, for lack of a better term, a new NATO a new defensive alignment with Europe.»
Kellogg, who served as a senior national security official during Trump’s first term, said the alliance has expanded politically but not militarily — creating what he sees as a growing gap between commitments and real capability.
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NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, U.S. President Donald Trump and Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer pose with NATO country leaders during the NATO Heads of State and Government summit in The Hague, Netherlands, on June 25, 2025. (Ben Stansall/Pool/Reuters)
«You started with 12, and you went to 32, and in the process, I think you diluted the impact,» he argued, calling today’s NATO «a very bloated architecture.»
«They haven’t put the money into defense. Their defense industry and defense forces have atrophied. When you look at the Brits right now, they could barely deploy forces: they have two aircraft carriers, both under maintenance. Their brigades are like one out of six that work. And you just look at the capability, it’s just not there. So I think we need to realize that and say, well, we need something different,» Kellogg, who is the co-chair of the Center for American Security at the America First Foreign Policy Institute, told Fox News Digital.
But not everyone agrees the alliance is losing relevance.
«It has never been more relevant,» said John R. Deni, a research professor at the U.S. Army War College, who says NATO remains central to U.S. national security.
«The reason for that is twofold,» he said. «One, it’s our comparative advantage versus the Chinese and the Russians… they don’t have anything like this.»
«And the second reason… NATO underwrites the security and stability of our most important trade and investment relationship,» he added, referring to economic ties between North America and Europe.
NATO ALLIES CLASH AFTER RUSSIAN JETS BREACH AIRSPACE, TESTING ALLIANCE RESOLVE
NATO Chiefs of Defense hold a hybrid meeting in Brussels on Aug. 20, 2025, with screens displaying allied leaders joining remotely to discuss Ukraine. (Fox News)
Dependence: Design or Weakness?
By around 2010, the United States accounted for roughly 65% to 70% of NATO defense spending, according to analysis provided by Barak Seener from the Henry Jackson Society, a London-based think tank.
«They’ve always been dependent on the U.S.,» Kellogg said of the European allies.
«The allies overall rely upon one another for deterrence and defense by design,» Deni said, explaining that alliances exist to «pool their resources» and «aggregate their individual strengths.»
Deni pointed to ground forces as a clear example of what the U.S. gains from the alliance, noting that «there are far more allied mechanized infantry forces on the ground than there are Americans.»
Still, he acknowledged that reliance has at times gone too far.
«In the past… it was fair to say that the European allies were overly reliant upon the Americans for conventional defense,» he said, pointing to the 2000s.
That, he said, was partly driven by U.S. priorities — as Washington pushed European allies to focus on wars in Afghanistan and Iraq rather than territorial defense.
A Polish Army soldier sits in a tank as a NATO flag flies behind during the NATO Noble Jump VJTF exercises on June 18, 2015, in Zagan, Poland. (Sean Gallup/Getty Images)
Seener describes NATO as «formally collective, but functionally asymmetric,» with the U.S. providing a disproportionate share of «high-end capabilities.»
That asymmetry is most visible in nuclear deterrence.
Seener said the U.S. provides the overwhelming majority of NATO’s nuclear arsenal — including intercontinental ballistic missiles, submarine-launched systems and strategic bombers — meaning deterrence ultimately relies on the assumption of U.S. retaliation.
A NATO official told Fox News Digital that, «The U.S. nuclear deterrent cannot be replaced, but it is clear that Europe needs to step up. There’s no question. There needs to be a better balance when it comes to our defense and security. Both because we see the vital role the U.S. plays around the world and the resources that it demands, and also because it is only fair.»
«The good news,» the official added, «is that the Allies are doing exactly that. They are stepping up, working together — and with the U.S. — to ensure we collectively have what we need to deter and defend one billion people living across the Euro-Atlantic area.»
NATO LAUNCHES ARCTIC SECURITY PUSH AS TRUMP EYES GREENLAND TAKEOVER
Boeing CH-47 Chinook helicopters of the U.S. Army 12th Combat Aviation Brigade fly over a Lithuanian Vilkas infantry fighting vehicle during the Allied Spirit 25 military exercise near Hohenfels, Germany, on March 12, 2025.
The Systems NATO Cannot Replace
Beyond nuclear weapons, the dependence runs through the alliance’s operational backbone.
Seener pointed to U.S.-provided intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance — as well as logistics and command systems — as essential to NATO operations.
«Without U.S. intelligence and surveillance, NATO loses situational awareness and early warning capabilities,» Seener said, adding, «So that means that Russia, for example, can attack Europe. And theoretically, if there’s no NATO and the U.S. is not involved, Europe would not be aware, or it would take it too long to be able to defend itself.»
Kellogg also says that much of Europe’s military capability falls short of top-tier systems.
«For the most part, their equipment, if you had to grade it A, B, C, D, E, F, they’re kind of like B players or C players,» he said. «It’s not the first line of work.»
He pointed to air and missile defense as a key gap, noting that while European countries rely on U.S.-made systems such as Patriot and THAAD, «they don’t have a system that’s comparable.»
Kellogg attributed that to years of underinvestment, saying European defense industries «have atrophied,» adding that the United States is also now «relearning that as well.»
TRUMP AFFIRMS US ‘WILL ALWAYS BE THERE FOR NATO,’ WHILE EXPRESSING DOUBTS ABOUT ALLIANCE
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg looks on as President Donald Trump and Poland’s President Andrzej Duda talk during a working lunch at the NATO leaders summit in Watford, Britain, on Dec. 4, 2019. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)
Deni said the picture today is more mixed.
«Alliance defense spending has been up… and has spiked far more after 2022,» he said, pointing to Russia’s invasion of Crimea in 2014 as a turning point.
But he cautioned that capability gains take time, noting that many improvements are still years away from full deployment.
Deni pointed to recent European purchases of U.S. systems as evidence of growing capability, noting that countries including Poland, Romania, Norway and Denmark are acquiring the F-35 fighter jet from the U.S.
«You can’t build an F-35 overnight,» he said, adding that many of these improvements will take years to fully materialize.
A NATO official told Fox News Digital the alliance «needs to move further and faster» to meet growing threats, pointing to new capability targets agreed by defense ministers in June 2025.
Keith Kellogg speaks during the Warsaw Security Forum 2025 on Sept. 30, 2025, in Warsaw, Poland. (Marek Antoni Iwanczuk/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
The official said priorities include air and missile defense, long-range weapons, logistics and large land forces, noting that while details remain classified, plans call for a fivefold increase in air and missile defense, «thousands more» armored vehicles and tanks, and «millions more» artillery shells. NATO also aims to double key enabling capabilities such as logistics, transportation and medical support.
The official added that allies are increasing investments in warships, aircraft, drones, long-range missiles, as well as space and cyber capabilities, while boosting readiness and modernizing command and control.
«These targets are now included in national plans,» the official said, adding that allies must demonstrate how they will meet them through sustained defense spending and capability development.
The NATO official also noted that European allies lead multinational forces across Central and Eastern Europe, while the U.S. and Canada serve as framework nations in Poland and Latvia, alongside ongoing air policing missions and NATO’s KFOR operation in Kosovo.
One of three Swedish Air Force JAS 39 Gripen fighter aircraft takes off from the Blekinge Wing F17, based in Kallinge southern Sweden for a base in Sardinia to join the Nato-led operation in Libya, on Saturday, April 2, 2011. As Sweden joins NATO, it bids a final farewell to more than two centuries of neutrality. (AP Photo/Scanpix/Patric Soderstrom, File)
What happens if the U.S. is stretched?
Kellogg’s warning is direct: NATO’s deterrence depends on U.S. presence.
«The one you always have to worry about… is Russia,» Kellogg, who was Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine and Russia in 2025, said.
If U.S. forces are tied down elsewhere, NATO could face serious strain — particularly in areas like intelligence and logistics.
For Kellogg, the danger is delay. «We won’t know until it happens,» he said. «And then you won’t be able to respond to it.»
Deni, however, said the alliance remains a strategic asset — not a liability.
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A NATO military force stands guard outside the World Forum in The Hague ahead of the two-day NATO summit on June 22, 2025. (Remko de Waal/ANP/AFP)
The question, he suggests, is not whether NATO still works. It is whether allies can adapt fast enough to keep it working.
nato, defense, national security, alliances, spending
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President Donald Trump delivered a 37-minute speech for America’s 250th birthday after a weather delay in the dark of night that was lit up by a Guinness world-record-setting fireworks display stretching from July 4 into July 5 at Washington, D.C.’s National Mall.
While thousands outlasted the rain and dodged nature’s thunderstorm light show, many Americans might have missed the president’s historic remarks.
Here is a recap of some of the highlights.
AMERICA’S NEXT 250 YEARS DEPEND ON PASSING FAITH AND FREEDOM TO OUR CHILDREN
President Donald Trump estimated in his speech that a crowd of 350,000 was cut to 150,000 on the Washington, D.C., National Mall for the record-setting fireworks display over the Washington Monument as part of the Salute to America 250 celebration. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc)
‘No dream in history is bigger’ than the American experiment
«In this country, we could achieve the wildest and most impossible dreams, and no dream in history is bigger or more incredible than the one that started on July 4th, 1776,» Trump said. «The war for independence was launched by minutemen, farmers, blacksmiths, tradesmen who took up their muskets against the mightiest army on earth, the most powerful army and unbeatable army – until they met us.»
«No one made them do it. They fought because they knew that a free people must have a free country. Over 250 years, the world has seen the great empires, vast kingdoms, mighty nations and terrible tyrants: They came and they went, but after 2 1/2 centuries, this American republic still stands tall and strong,» the president added.
TRUMP HAILS AMERICA AS ‘MOST EXCEPTIONAL NATION EVER TO EXIST’ IN MOUNT RUSHMORE SPEECH
‘America is a nation of winners’
«Americans won the West and built the modern world, because America is a nation of winners, and today our country is winning again, and we’re winning like never before,» Trump said just before the midway point of the speech. «America is back and we want to keep America great.»
«Together, we are also reasserting the truth that American strength and power is not something to be ashamed of. It is something that we are very, very proud of,» Trump continued. «This country has been the greatest force for peace and justice on earth in the last century. We defeated tyrants, demolished evil, and saved freedom again and again and again.»
‘Nothing Americans cannot do’
«There is no challenge Americans can not overcome,» Trump said before his concluding remarks. «There is no place we cannot go. There is no goal we cannot reach. And there is nothing that Americans cannot do.»
The crowd got 37 minutes of President Donald Trump’s historic America 250 speech and 38 minutes of the largest fireworks display in world history, breaking a Guinness Book of World Records mark as planned by Trump. (Pete Kiehart/Bloomberg)
Thanking those staying into the late hours
«If you think that was easy, it wasn’t,» Trump began in an unscripted salute to the patient and devoted crowd. «And I want to thank everybody because they did the right thing. They saw lightning. And I said, ‘there’s no way; if we have to speak in front of one person at 4 in the morning, I’m going to be here.’
«There’s no way we can be deterred. And they estimated they had 375,000 people before everybody had to leave, and they now have 150,000 people. It’s the craziest thing anyone’s ever seen.
«And I want to just thank you. And I feel so badly about some people. They left it; they couldn’t get back. But, you’re very special people, and we have a very special country. Thank you very much.»
’56 patriots put everything at risk’ for ‘victory for the ages’
«They declare that all men are created equal; that they are endowed with sacred unalienable rights by the hand of our creator, and that among these are life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,» Trump said, «and signing their names to the roster of freedom.»
«Those 56 patriots put everything at risk. Stepped onto the stage of destiny and seized a victory for the ages. And that’s what it was,» he said. «And this is an evening for the ages. I believe this is something very special. This is bigger than if we didn’t have the lightning blaring. We had lightning blaring. But this is bigger, little more inconvenient, but it’s bigger, I think, in its own way it’s more beautiful. From the beginning, we were a nation that live by the motto victory or death and live free or die.»
‘We will always be the best’
«God bless the immortal patriots of 1776, and long live the cause of independence,» Trump said. «May it reign forever and ever and ever. We will always be on top. We will never let our country fall. We will always be the best.»
«Our founders not only won our liberty, they secured it with the most righteous political document ever conceived: It’s called the Constitution of the United States,» Trump said. «Very special, and it’s because of their genius that we remain the finest people on the planet.»
Honoring 11 Gold Star families
«We are honored to be joined by 11 Gold Star family members,» Trump said. «The Gold Star family – that is one of the great tributes. It’s one of the great honors, a tough honor. There’s nothing tougher than that. But these are amazing people.»
Next stop, the moon, then a mission to Mars
«We’re going to be going to Mars very soon, and I think that’s something that we do have in my mind,» Trump said, hearkening to the historic John F. Kennedy going to the moon speech excerpt.
«And we’re going to do the moon and we’re going to go from there. We’re going to go to Mars, and we’re going to continue to be way ahead.»
Defeating communism: We ‘cast the hammer and sickle into oblivion’
«All these talks from the communists, they haven’t got a chance – not even a chance,» Trump said; a theme he reiterated multiple times in the speech. «We don’t want communists in our country. Never worked and it never will work.»
Communism will always be «a loser,» Trump added later.
«Our warriors did not fight communism on battlefields across the world only to have that menace rears its ugly head right back here in America. We’re not going to let it happen. We like to stop a threat like that immediately and before it begins,» Trump said. «It’s like a cancer. You got to cut it out. You got to cut it out fast.»
Trump added a warning to potential future communist opposition around the globe.
«The Stars and Stripes cast the hammer and sickle into oblivion before,» Trump said, «and we will do it again if necessary.»
«I don’t think it’s going to be necessary. I think people have learned. They’ve learned what to do and how to handle it, and we’ll get a handle it very well.»
‘Our destiny is written by God’
«We have thrived and flourished because our founders were great, our cause was just, our people are brave, our culture is exceptional, and our destiny is written by God,» Trump said near the end of the speech he apparently cut short after vowing earlier this week to deliver an hours-long address to the world.
«And as we can see here tonight, after 250 years, the spirit of 1776 still lives within us all. It still roars in the hearts of our nation’s capital. It still burns in the heart of every patriot, thunders through every city and town, and is still lights the entire world with the glow of American liberty. And there is nothing like that.»
250 and ‘just getting started’: ‘Best is yet to come’; ‘dawn of the golden age’
Fireworks over the National Mall during the ‘Freedom 250: Salute to America’ Independence Day celebration in Washington, D.C., might have extended to July 5, 2026, but President Donald Trump still made sure they went off for the thousands that waited out the thunderstorm with him Saturday night. (Mehmet Eser/Anadolu)
«At 250 years old, we may be the oldest constitutional republic on earth, but our country is just getting started because the best is yet to come: This is only the dawn of the golden age of America,» Trump said in his conclusion, leading directly into the National Mall fireworks display.
«And on this 250th 4th of July, we declare, just as they did two and a half centuries ago, that for our country and for our children and for the cause of liberty, we are going to take our country to new levels, to levels not reached,» Trump continued. «We’re going to make it bigger, better, stronger, and we’re going to love it even more.»
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«And I just want to thank you,» he added, finishing with words off the script. «The inconvenience of lightning can do that, but lightning will never stop you. And I want to thank everybody and we love you all. And it’s an honor to be your president. Thank you. God bless you all.»
america 250, donald trump, washington dc, white house, history
INTERNACIONAL
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Leah Stewart, an Australian mother and teacher who lost an arm after a shark attack at Sydney’s Coogee Beach, has been reading messages from supporters around the world during sleepless nights as she continues her long recovery, her family said.
«We’ve been sharing some of the beautiful messages we’ve received with Leah and she’s loved them, finding inspiration from the care and love you’ve all shared,» her brother, Joshua Stewart, wrote in a GoFundMe update on Sunday.
«Leah has had some challenging days but has found real strength from your kindness and support,» he added.
Leah Stewart has struggled with sleep in her recovery and has leaned on the wave of support from family, friends and strangers.
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«Since the incident Leah has had difficulty sleeping, and on those nights she’s been reading back through your messages, not only from her family and community in Australia and her whānau in New Zealand, but also from people all across the world,» he wrote, using the Maori word for family. «They’ve given her real comfort and strength.»
Stewart, mother to a 1-year-old daughter and passionate teacher, was attacked June 13 while on a morning swim close to shore and within the flags at Coogee Beach, according to her family. She suffered life-threatening injuries, including multiple bites across her arms and legs, lacerations, fractures and extreme blood loss.
She was placed on life support, put under a medically induced coma and underwent multiple surgeries in the days after the attack. Her treatment required the amputation of one arm, and the family said more surgeries were scheduled as doctors worked to save her life and stabilize her condition.
Stewart, who woke up from her 10-day coma after doctors reduced her sedation, told her mother and partner, Fernando, «I love you.» Her brother said at the time that her first thoughts were with her young daughter, August.
SHARK ATTACK SURVIVOR WAKES FROM 10-DAY COMA AND SHARES FIRST WORDS WITH FAMILY AT HER HOSPITAL BEDSIDE
«Leah has a long road ahead,» Joshua Stewart wrote after she briefly woke, calling the moment a hopeful first step in her recovery.
Joshua Stewart said the family wanted to apologize for delays in responding to supporters, explaining they have had issues with the GoFundMe messaging system.
«Leah is beyond overwhelmed at the amazing support she has received and that her story has resonated with so many people,» he wrote. «Thank you!»
The fundraiser was launched to help Stewart, her partner and their young daughter through what her family described as a heartbreaking situation. The money will support her recovery, prosthetics, rehabilitation, ongoing care and the major adjustments she will need as she works toward returning to life as a mother.
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Her family also thanked the lifesavers, first responders, helicopter crew and medical team at St. Vincent’s Hospital who helped care for Stewart after the attack.
«As a family we are shocked and devastated that this could happen to our beloved partner, daughter and mother who is so full of life and energy,» Joshua Stewart wrote.
sharks, australia, new zealand, travel safety, beach
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