NATO will spend hundreds of billions of dollars on defense, says Rutte, as Trump pledges 5,000 American troops to top spender Poland

Key points

• U.S. President Donald Trump holds a bilateral meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, January 21, 2026. NATO will spend hundreds of billions of dollars on defense in the coming years, its Secretary General Mark Rutte said on Friday, hours after U.S. President Donald Trump pledged thousands of new troops to its eastern flank.
• Speaking to reporters ahead of a NATO meeting in Helsingborg, Sweden, on Friday, Rutte said "the money is really coming in," with allies "committing more and more." Last year, NATO member states agreed to raise their defense spending target from 2% of gross domestic product to 5%, with a view to reaching those levels by 2035. Rutte said Friday that many of the alliance's 32 members were accelerating the path to the 5% spending commitment.
• "This literally means over the years hundreds of billions [of dollars] of...