President Donald Trump’s continued criticism of Germany’s failure to pay its defense bills looks to have pushed one of Europe’s wealthiest nations into action. 

The president’s criticism of Berlin has compelled Germany to increase funding for its military forces and infrastructure, which critics say are in a bad state of affairs.

Richard Grenell, U.S. Ambassador to Germany during the first Trump administration, told Fox News Digital «multiple German leaders ignored the warnings from President Trump that Russia was using energy as a weapon against them. 

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«The war in Ukraine and the invasion of Putin showed the new German leadership that Donald Trump was absolutely right about Germany feeding the beast that ultimately turned on them,» he added.

Trump appointed Grenell as presidential envoy for «special missions» in December.

In 2018, Trump rebuked Germany’s addiction to Russian gas, according to observers of German-U.S. relations. He told the U.N. General Assembly that «Germany will become totally dependent on Russian energy if it does not immediately change course. Here in the Western Hemisphere, we are committed to maintaining our independence from the encroachment of expansionist foreign powers.»

During his remarks, the camera panned to Germany’s delegation to the U.N. in 2018, including its then-U.N. Ambassador, Christoph Heusgen, and former Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, who all seemingly laughed and smiled at Trump. 

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However, those smirks soon turned into raw anxiety, when four years later, in 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine and Germany scrambled for a way to wean itself off Russian gas to avoid helping reward Putin.

Matthew Kroenig, director of the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security, told Fox News Digital, «Every U.S. presidential administration since Eisenhower has complained about European free riding, but asking «pretty please» has not worked. Trump’s tough rhetoric is achieving results that eluded his predecessors.

«The Trump effect is in part due to Trump raising NATO burden sharing to the very top of the transatlantic security agenda and in part due to genuine fears that Washington could abandon NATO and Europe would need to fend for itself.»

Soldiers from the German Armed Forces honorary guard are pictured during a reception with military honors Nov. 4, 2024, in Berlin, Germany. (Getty Images)

After Trump and Grenell helped to cajole the Germans out of their security slumber, Berllin reached the NATO goal of spending 2% of gross domestic product spending in 2024. This was the first time Berlin reached 2% since 1991, the end of the Cold War. 

Trump, however, called for Germany to spend 5% on defense because, he argues, the U.S. is contributing significant resources to protect the central European country.

The frustration with Germany and other European allies was captured in text messages reported between Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Vice President JD Vance. 

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«I fully share your loathing of European free-loading. It’s PATHETIC,» Hegseth said in response to Vance, who questioned U.S. leadership in advancing security policies in the Red Sea to counter Houthi aggression and reopen shipping lanes. 

Germany’s export trade greatly benefits from free navigation in the Middle East, but it refuses to aid the U.S. in stopping the Iran-backed Houthi terrorist movement via military strikes. Europe and Germany are unwilling to follow Trump’s lead and sanction the Houthis as a terrorist entity.

Friedrich Merz, chairman of the Christian Democratic Union and a chancellor candidate, during a press conference after the federal election Feb. 24, 2025, in Berlin, Germany. (Florian Gaertner/Photothek via Getty Images)

The so-called Trump Effect has also affected the German parliament’s decision to relax restrictions on debt so it can pump funds into its military superstructure.  

The likely new German chancellor, Friedrich Merz of the conservative Christian Democratic Union party, said he would do «whatever it takes» to rebuild Germany’s frail military. Berlin’s mainstream parties aim to invest hundreds of billions of euros in defense and infrastructure. Germany’s armed forces (Bundeswehr) are, according to reports, in a state of disarray, with a mere 181,174 soldiers at the end of last year. Germany’s Defense Ministry seeks to expand its armed forces to 203,000 by 2031.

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Recruitment remains an ongoing challenge within a population raised on pacifism. After Germany started two World Wars in the last century, Germany’s power politics stressed the role of multilateral institutions like the U.N. and diplomacy in remedying conflicts.

Conscripted armored infantrymen stand at attention while dressed in their camouflage uniforms during an exercise as part of the basic training of the German Bundeswehr on the premises of the Knuell Barracks in Schwarzenborn, Germany, in April 2005.  (Frank May/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images)

The Associated Press recently reported that Germany’s parliamentary commissioner for the armed forces, Eva Högl, said, «The biggest problem is boredom. She added «If young people have nothing to do, if there isn’t enough equipment and there aren’t enough trainers, if the rooms aren’t reasonably clean and orderly, that deters people, and it makes the Bundeswehr unattractive.»

In an interview earlier this month with German news outlet WELT, the German historian Michael Wolffsohn, who taught at the Bundeswehr University Munich, said of Germany and Western Europe’s failure over the decades to address its severe defense deficits, «Now we get the receipt for everything we neglected.»

Fox News Digital sent a detailed press query to the German Foreign Ministry about Trump’s criticism that Berlin has chronically underinvested in defense and remained wedded to Putin’s gas supply after his warnings.

Fox News’ Caitlin McFall contributed to this report.

Brits have until Aug. 1 to get rid of all their ninja swords as the U.K.’s Labour government looks to crack down on knife crime.

U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced Thursday that «ninja swords» specifically will be banned this summer after the 2022 murder of 16-year-old Ronan Kanda, who was stabbed to death by a ninja sword just outside his home. 

«Confirmed: Ninja swords will be banned by this summer,» Starmer said in a post on X. «When we promise action we take it.»

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The new ban, «Ronan’s Law,» will now make it illegal to possess, sell, make or import ninja swords.

«Since losing our beautiful boy Ronan, we have relentlessly campaigned for a ban on ninja swords, the lethal weapon which took his life,» Pooja Kanda, the mother to the 16-year-old boy, said, according to a government readout. «We believe ninja swords have no place in our society other than to seriously harm and kill.

«Each step towards tackling knife crime is a step towards getting justice for our boy Ronan.» 

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The British government has set up a surrender process for any owner of a ninja sword, defined as a blade between 14 inches and 24 inches «with one straight cutting edge with a tanto-style point.»

«From 1 August, anyone caught in possession of a ninja sword in private could face 6 months in prison, and this will later increase to 2 years under new measures in the Crime and Policing Bill,» the government said in a statement. «There is already a penalty of up to 4 years in prison for carrying any weapon in public.»  

Knife crime has long plagued the U.K. and though offenses involving a «sharp instrument» committed last year across England and Wales were down from a 15-year peak in 2019, they were still substantially higher than crimes reported in 2010, when 33,800 crimes were reported, versus the 50,500 cases in 2024.

A person views knives available to purchase via an online website.  (Yui Mok/PA Images via Getty Images)

A sharp instrument, according to the U.K., could include knives, but it could also include the use of a broken bottle to commit an offense.

The U.K. saw a significant drop from the 52,000 cases involving a «sharp instrument» reported in 2019 by the following year with 41,700 cases reported.

But these incidents have continued to increase each year since. 

Nearly two dozen different types of knives are already banned in the UK, including swords that are not a part of a national uniform, switch blades, zombie knives, belt buckle knives or butterfly knives, to name a few. 

Knives that are permitted are those used for cooking or while working and have a cutting edge of no more than three inches. 

Though the government states that «it’s illegal to use any knife or weapon in a threatening way.»

Under Ronan’s Law, jail sentences were also increased for selling knives to minors and the illegal sale of banned knives.

An officer outside All Saints Catholic High School on Granville Road in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, after a 15-year-old boy died in a stabbing at the school Feb. 3, 2025. (Danny Lawson/PA Images via Getty Images)

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«Knife crime is destroying young lives as too many teenagers are being drawn into violence, and it is far too easy for them to get hold of dangerous weapons,» Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said in a statement. «Ronan Kanda was just 16 when he was ruthlessly killed by two boys only a year older than him.

«We are acting with urgency to bring forward measures to prevent deadly weapons from getting into the wrong hands and will continue to do whatever is needed to prevent young people being killed on our streets as part of our mission to halve knife crime over the next decade.» 

Evyatar David, a music lover who dreams of working in the industry, is languishing in a Hamas tunnel, according to his brother, Ilay David. 

In a recent conversation with Fox News Digital, Ilay warned that his brother and all the hostages are running out of time.

«Every week we used to play music together. That’s what I miss the most,» Ilay told Fox News Digital. He has been fighting for Evyatar’s release since Oct. 7, 2023. Ilay described his brother as «the kindest soul I know.»

On Oct. 7, 2023, Evyatar was at the Nova music festival with three other friends when Hamas’ attacks began. Two of Evyatar’s friends did not survive the attacks, while he and his best friend, Guy Gilboa-Dalal, were taken hostage.

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Like many other hostage families, Evyatar’s family set up a website to tell the world who he is and why securing his freedom is so crucial. On the website, his family laments that his «vibrant life» was forever changed. There are also videos showcasing Evyatar’s guitar skills.

In February, the David family received a sign of life that Ilay described as being «shocking and amazing and frightening.» Evyatar and Guy were forced to participate in a Hamas propaganda film, a practice the terror group has employed throughout the war. In the video, the two men in their 20s appear frail and tired as they beg for their lives while being forced to watch a hostage release ceremony in Gaza. 

«When it was finished, I could breathe,» Ilay told Fox News Digital as he recalled watching the film for the first time. «I saw them alive. I saw that they are together.» 

Ilay’s relief washed away when he watched the video a second time.

«I saw how starved they are. They are half the men they used to be. And you could see in their eyes that they are exhausted, and they are begging for their lives,» Ilay told Fox News Digital. «They are broken, both of them, broken men.»

«They saw freedom, and they shut the door in their faces. And they threw them back into the tunnels. And that’s cruelty.»

Hamas hostage Evyatar David before his kidnapping. ( )

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Ilay’s concerns about his brother have only grown since former hostages who were held with Evyatar detailed the conditions in which they were held. He told Fox News Digital that the former hostages said the two men have been underground in the tunnels for most of their captivity and were only able to see sunlight when they were taken to the ceremony. As is the case with most hostages, Evyatar and Guy are given very little to eat and have limited access to water. 

«But it’s only a matter of time until — I don’t know — one of the terrorists would just… be angry or upset. So, he will decide that he wants to execute, execute Evyatar or Guy. And I don’t want to think about it, but it happened already,» Ilay told Fox News Digital, likely referring to the six hostages who were shot dead in late August 2024, just before Israeli troops were able to reach them.

A poster with a photograph of Evyatar David, who is held hostage in Gaza, is placed on a table in front of Ilay David, his brother, during a House Foreign Affairs Committee roundtable discussion with family members of hostages held in Gaza, amid a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., Feb. 12, 2025. (REUTERS/Nathan Howard)

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Ilay told Fox News Digital he has done everything possible to tell his brother’s story and to make him «visible,» including going to Washington, D.C., to meet with American lawmakers. He believes President Donald Trump has a «very big role» to play in securing the release of Evyatar and the remaining hostages. 

«[Trump], no kidding, may be sent by God to save these people,» Ilay said. He cited the release of 33 hostages over the course of the ceasefire deal that only recently fell apart, and said that if it weren’t for Trump, those people would still be in Gaza.

Ilay told Fox News Digital that, in his eyes, the atrocities of Oct. 7 have not ended — they are still happening for the people held by Hamas in Gaza.