The following article by Niv Elis was posted on the Hill website July 15, 2018:
President Trump‘s suggestion this past week that all NATO members double their targeted defense spending to 4 percent of their economic output is drawing skepticism from defense spending experts.
Trump regularly takes a hard-line tack when it comes to negotiations with U.S. allies, often floating more extreme scenarios while trying to nail down specific commitments. He floated the 4 percent figure while pushing allies to reach the current goal of spending 2 percent of their gross domestic product (GDP) on defense.
Experts aren’t sure the U.S., which already spends more on defense than the next eight largest defense spenders combined, needs the extra boost, while budget watchers are concerned that substantially expanding defense spending would further inflate an already-mammoth deficit.