President Donald Trump asked Congress for a $500 billion increase in defense spending last week, a significant jump from this year’s $1 trillion budget, but necessary considering both the growing threat from China and the efforts our allies have made in both the Atlantic and Pacific in meeting their defense spending obligations. If we are going to ask our allies to spend 5% of GDP on defense, we should match that commitment, and Trump is doing that.

Thanks to an infusion of cash from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, this year’s defense budget reached $1 trillion, approximately 3% of GDP, but is set to decline to around $900 billion next year. We are currently asking our NATO allies to spend 5% of GDP on defense — 3.5 % of GDP on core military defense such as troops and equipment, with an additional 1.5 % on defense-related investments including infrastructure and logistics — and while none of them are currently hitting that target, almost all of them significantly increased their military spending last year. In the Pacific, Japan’s new government has also announced record-high defense spending.