INTERNACIONAL
Trump effect forces Germany to reprioritize defense as nation plays catch-up in military spending

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.
During his first term, President Donald Trump waits to greet Angela Merkel, the chancellor of Germany, at the White House in Washington, D.C., March 17, 2017. (Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
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.
INTERNACIONAL
Finnish President: Trump should give Putin 3 weeks to agree Ukraine ceasefire

The president of Finland is urging President Trump to impose a deadline on Vladimir Putin of April 20 to agree a ceasefire in Ukraine.
Speaking to Fox News in London following a weekend visit with Trump in Florida, Alexander Stubb praised Trump’s negotiating efforts, saying Trump is «probably the only person in the world who can mediate the peace.»
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But he argued the ceasefire negotiation process should not be open ended.
«We need a ceasefire, and we need a date for the ceasefire,» Stubb said. «And that date should be the 20th of April.»
Finnish President Alexander Stubb is urging President Trump to push his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, into agreeing a Ukraine ceasefire by April 20. (Getty Images)
April 20 would mark three months since Trump’s inauguration, and is also Orthodox Easter.
«If President Putin — who is the only one who is not accepting a ceasefire, because the Americans want it, the Europeans want it, the Ukrainians want it — if he doesn’t oblige by the ceasefire, then we should go for a colossal set of sanctions coming from the United States and Europe,» Stubb said.
Trump has spoken of a «psychological deadline» for Russia to agree to a ceasefire, but has declined to name a date.
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Stubb said Putin «respects, and in many ways fears, Donald Trump.»
Finland — a neighbor of Russia’s, with a shared border running more than 800 miles — upended decades of neutrality two years ago when it joined NATO, alarmed by the war in Ukraine.
Stubb believes Ukraine should also be allowed to join the military alliance «in the long run» — a position that runs counter to the Trump administration’s.

Stubb sat down for an interview with Fox News after meeting President Trump at Mar-a-Lago. (Alex Hogan/Fox News)
Following talks and a round of golf with Trump in Florida, the Finnish leader said European leaders are heeding American complaints that Europe does not spend enough money on defense, relying instead on the United States.
«Europe needs to take more responsibility for its own security, more responsibility for its own defense,» Stubb said. «I think we’re doing exactly that.»
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He described the U.S.-European relationship as «in a transition,» but insisted: «We’re allies.
«Just because ideologically there are differences at times between Europeans and Americans doesn’t mean that we’re going to sever or divorce.»
INTERNACIONAL
After debilitating strikes, Trump tells Houthis: Stop shooting at us and ‘we will stop shooting at you’

President Donald Trump on Monday touted the success of the U.S.’s two-week-long offensive against the Houthis in Yemen and issued a clear message: «Stop shooting at U.S. ships, and we will stop shooting at you.»
The Trump administration launched its operations earlier this month after the Houthi terrorist group once again renewed its threats against Israeli vessels earlier this month after Jerusalem cut off humanitarian aid headed for the Gaza Strip.
«The Iran-backed Houthi Terrorists have been decimated by the relentless strikes over the past two weeks,» Trump said in a post on his social media outlet Truth Social on Monday afternoon. «Many of their Fighters and Leaders are no longer with us.»
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President Trump is taking action against the Houthis to defend U.S. shipping assets and deter terrorist threats, the White House posted on X on March 15, 2025. (The White House)
«We hit them every day and night – Harder and harder,» he added.
Trump said their capabilities that enable the Houthis to target shipping in the region are «being rapidly destroyed.»
The terrorist network, backed by Iran, began escalating its attacks on Western ships in the Red Sea following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel. Notably, security experts have pointed out the Houthi attacks are not indiscriminate as they do not routinely target Chinese or Saudi Arabian vessels.
Trump also issued a message to Iran on Monday and warned if the attacks do not stop, Washington will come for Tehran next.
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Houthi followers burn the Israeli and American flags during a tribal gathering on Jan. 14, 2024 on the outskirts of Sana’a, Yemen. Houthi followers gathered to protest against the U.S.-U.K. airstrikes on positions in areas under their control. (Mohammed Hamoud/Getty Images)
«Our attacks will continue until they are no longer a threat to Freedom of Navigation,» Trump said. «Otherwise, we have only just begun, and the real pain is yet to come, for both the Houthis and their sponsors in Iran.»
Trump has increased his threats issued against Iran in recent days, warning of direct military repercussions not only if it doesn’t stop arming terrorist networks, but if it continues with its nuclear ambitions.
U.S. Central Command has not released an update about the Houthi leaders allegedly killed in the strikes or the most recent operations.

US President Donald Trump speaks to the press aboard Air Force One before arriving at Palm Beach International Airport in West Palm Beach, Florida, on March 28, 2025. Trump is traveling to his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach. (BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)
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According to Houthi representatives, three people were killed in an overnight strike around the Houthi-controlled capital of Sanaa — which the terrorist network has held its grip on since 2014, reported the Associated Press.
The strike, which apparently carried on into Monday morning, came just three days after the previous attack on Friday, which was reported to have been more «intense» than previous aerial campaigns and was carried out over several locations in and around Sanaa.
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