Pete Hegseth harshly criticizes European allies as Trump steers NATO into a major policy change: ‘American will not be taken advantage of’

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth emphasized the importance of Europe taking responsibility for its own defense during a speech at NATO’s headquarters in Brussels. He stated that the U.S. would not allow itself to be taken advantage of and that European countries needed to contribute more to their own defense.

‘Make no mistake, President Trump will not allow anyone to turn Uncle Sam into “Uncle Sucker,”‘ the new Pentagon chief said. 

He reiterated a point Trump has often made – that European allies needed to pony up  more cash to support the alliance. 

Hegseth praised NATO as the most successful defense alliance in history but stressed that for it to remain strong, European partners must step up their defense efforts. He called for a renewed commitment to strengthening NATO’s capabilities.

He noted that: ‘We can talk all we want about values.’ 

According to Hegseth, while values and speeches are essential, they cannot replace the necessity of military strength. He emphasized the significance of hard power, highlighting that values and symbols alone are insufficient in maintaining security.

‘It should be obvious that increasing allied European defense spending is critical, as the president of the United States has said,’ Hegseth said at the top of the press conference. 

During the question and answer period, he called the idea ‘false’ that Trump starts off the negotiations to end the war in Ukraine with Russian President Vladimir Putin from any position other than ‘strength.’  

The comments came after Hegseth made clear Wednesday that the Trump administration’s policy would be that the U.S. would not front the lion’s share of aid to Ukraine. 

Hegseth said that Washington will ‘no longer tolerate an imbalanced relationship’ with its allies, adding that ‘Europe must provide the overwhelming share of future lethal and non-lethal aid to Ukraine’.

He stressed that the United States was no longer ‘primarily focused’ on Europe, and said that the old continent would have to fund most of Ukraine’s defense itself in a turn away from a 75-year role as the ‘primary guarantor of security in Europe’.

It comes as Trump revealed he had spoken with Russian President Vladimir Putin at length on Wednesday about starting negotiations immediately to end the war in Ukraine.

‘We have also agreed to have our respective teams start negotiations immediately, and we will begin by calling President Zelenskiy, of Ukraine, to inform him of the conversation, something which I will be doing right now,’ Trump said in a post on his social media platform. 

Earlier, in a huge boost for Putin, Hegseth added that the US would not deploy troops to Ukraine to uphold any peace deal with Russia – one of the key security guarantees requested by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Hegseth also said that it was implausible for Ukraine to expect to return to a pre-war state, assessing that any peace process ‘must start by recognising that returning to Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders is an unrealistic objective’.

‘The United States remains committed to the NATO alliance and to the defence partnership with Europe, full stop,’ he said. ‘But the United States will no longer tolerate an imbalanced relationship which encourages dependency.’

Washington’s allies have been waiting nervously for clarity from Trump’s administration after the he demanded that NATO more than double its defence spending target and vowed to end the war in Ukraine.

Hegseth’s comments will compound Ukrainian fears and hand leverage to Russia, after Trump suggested the country ‘may be Russian someday’ in unsettling comments during an interview with Fox News, aired Monday.

Speaking to the Ukraine Defense Contact Group at the NATO HQ in Belgium, Hegseth sought to clarify Trump‘s positions on whether NATO should accept Ukraine as a member, Europe’s role in Ukraine’s defense, and territorial changes.

‘Honesty will be our policy going forward,’ Hegseth stated during his speech on Wednesday.

He repeated that Trump was committed to ending the war and bringing about a negotiated peace between Russia and Ukraine.  

‘The bloodshed must stop and this war must end,’ Hegseth said.

But he caveated that a return to pre-war borders was an ‘illusionary goal’ that would ‘only prolong the war and cause more suffering’.

Russia says it has annexed five regions of Ukraine – Crimea in 2014 and then Donetsk, Kherson, Lugansk and Zaporizhzhia in 2022 – though it does not have full control over them.

Putin said last year that a deal would hinge upon Ukraine’s recognition of Russia’s claim to four regions in its east and south, including areas not currently controlled by Russia. 

Zelenskyy has rejected any territorial concessions to Moscow, though he has acknowledged that Ukraine might have to rely on diplomatic means to secure the return of some territory.

In an interview with The Guardian yesterday, he stressed that that Europe will not be able to completely meet Ukraine’s military needs or provide adequate security guarantees without US involvement.

Kyiv has expressed in the past that any settlement that does not include hard military commitments – such as NATO membership or the deployment of peacekeeping troops – will just allow the Kremlin time to regroup and rearm for a fresh attack.

NATO is founded on the principle that an attack on any ally must be considered an attack on them all and met with a collective response. Membership is considered to be the ultimate security guarantee, and it’s one that Ukraine is trying to secure. 

Zelenskyy said last month he would speak to the leaders of Britain and France to discuss a plan that would see troops from both countries stationed in Ukraine to held uphold and oversee a ceasefire agreement. 

But speaking on Wednesday, Hegseth ruled out  the idea of NATO accepting Ukraine as a member, or sending U.S. troops as peacekeepers to uphold a ceasefire.

‘Any security guarantee must be backed by capable European and non-European troops,’ he said, adding that ‘to be clear, as part of any security guarantee, there will not be US troops deployed to Ukraine.’

The comments play into Putin’s hands, with Moscow opposing both Ukraine’s NATO ambitions and the proposal to deploy NATO peacekeepers in Ukraine.

Europe will fear the dangerous precedent of allowing a belligerent dictator to absorb territory through wars of aggression on its border.

But most pressingly, the demand to find cash and aid for Ukraine will hamper smaller economies.

The U.S. State Department reported last month that the U.S. had contributed $65.9bn towards helping Ukraine since February 2022, over three years. 

American GDP last year alone was around $29trn. 

By comparison, Britain, with a GDP of around £3.34trn ($4.15trn), has shelled out an average of about £4.3billion a year for Ukraine, equivalent to around 0.14 per cent of GDP.

Ukraine’s security needs and defense spending are set to be discussed on Thursday.

European allies have hiked their military budgets since Putin ordered his troops into Ukraine, and 23 are estimated to have reached or exceeded last year the target of spending 2% of gross domestic product.

However, a third of members still haven’t reached that threshold, and Trump is almost certain to target them again. 

Recently, Trump called for NATO members to increase defense spending to 5% of GDP, a level that no member has reached so far – not even Poland, which is the closest, spending more than 4% and expected to approach 5% this year. 

Despite this, Hegseth wouldn’t commit to having the U.S. increase its own defense spending to 5% of GDP. The U.S. spends about 3.3% of GDP on defense.

He said on Tuesday that he believes that the U.S. should spend more than it did under the Biden administration and ‘should not go lower than 3 percent.’

NATO leaders are expected to agree on new spending targets at their next planned summit, in The Hague, Netherlands, on June 24-26. 

Hegseth also warned Europe that the United States would have to do more to defend itself in the future, citing ‘stark strategic realities’ of their priority to compete with China.

His two days of talks in Brussels are part of a flurry of visits to Europe by top US officials, culminating with Vice President JD Vance meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at a security conference in Munich on Friday. 

A British military think-tank warned today that the demands placed on NATO allies by the U.S. were ‘unachievable at this time’.

‘With budget pressures in most European countries continuing, sustaining increased spending is likely to be challenging,’ the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) said.

The annual Military Balance report noted that European defense spending surged by 11.4 percent in real terms last year, but the rise looks unlikely to continue.

Germany’s defense expenditure rose a whopping 23 percent in 2024 to $86 billion, according to the yearly assessment of the militaries and defence economics of over 170 countries.

German defense budget is now the largest in Europe, ‘surpassing that of the UK, which has been the largest spender in Europe and the second largest in NATO for the last three decades,’ the IISS said.

The IISS said Europe currently accounts for less than one third of total NATO defence spending, with its share at $442 billion.

Raising Europe’s commitment to three percent of GDP would see the figure grow by more than $250 billion, and by almost $750 billion if five percent is achieved, the study said.

‘However, such figures are unachievable at this time, with some countries already using off-budget instruments to bolster budgets,’ the think-tank said.

Chairing the 26th Ukraine Defence Contact Group summit, British defense secretary John Healey meanwhile announced a package of £150mn ($186.56mn) worth of battle tanks, drones and armored vehicles and defense systems as part of the UK’s £3bn annual pledge to Ukraine.

The UK has sent 500,000 rounds of ammunition to Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion, worth over £1 billion and is on track to provide more than 10,000 drones within a year with final deliveries due next month, he said.

Mr Healey was understood to be having a bilateral meeting with the US defence secretary on Wednesday, though no readout is expected. 

Russia meanwhile continues to advance across Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, where it has captured several settlements – mostly completely flattened by months of Russian bombardments – over the past year.

Moscow has also pursued a months-long bombing campaign against Ukrainian energy infrastructure, claiming the attacks targeted facilities that aid Kyiv’s military.

On Tuesday, the Ukrainian energy minister said the energy sector ‘continues to be under attack’, and Kyiv is ‘urgently apply emergency power supply restrictions’ to ‘minimize possible consequences’.