Find the Source

Instapundit.com linked to a Stars & Stripes article that mentioned a recent survey of Germans about defense funding.  I always have suspicions about a web article that summarizes someone else without a link, but I found the survey.  Koerber-Stiftung:

"Boris Pistorius’s proposal to increase defense spending to 3 to 3.5 percent of the gross domestic product received the approval of 50 percent of those surveyed. Fifteen percent even consider this figure to be too low. At the same time, the majority of Germans (65 percent) oppose a military leadership role for Germany in Europe. In 2023, this figure was still at 71 percent. When it comes to greater involvement in international crises, Germans remain divided: 46 percent expressed support in September. This is the highest figure since the survey began in 2017. At the same time, 44 percent continue to oppose a stronger international engagement."

Liberals have tried to cast Trump's cajoling of NATO members to increase spending as threatening to abandon NATO but it appears that Trump was just ahead of the curve. 

Hungary And Sweden

 Hungary has been the lone holdout to Sweden's joining NATO.  It appears Prime Minister Urban has bent:

1/24/24 Reuters:

BUDAPEST, Jan 24 (Reuters) - Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban told NATO secretary general Jens Stoltenberg in a phone call that the Hungarian government supports Sweden's membership of the military alliance, Orban said on social media platform X on Wednesday.

"I reaffirmed that the Hungarian government supports the NATO-membership of #Sweden," Orban said in the post.

Orban added that he also told Stoltenberg that he will continue to urge the Hungarian national assembly to vote in favour of Sweden's accession to NATO and conclude the ratification at the first possible opportunity.

Stoltenberg said after the call that Orban and his government clearly supported Sweden's NATO membership.

"I look forward to the ratification as soon as parliament reconvenes," Stoltenberg said on X.

Turkey's parliament approved Sweden's membership in the Western military alliance on Tuesday, leaving Hungary as the only NATO member yet to ratify the accession.

How Much Are Our NATO Allies Spending on Defense

During the campaign, Trump expressed his desire to see our allies either spend more on defense, or pay us for protecting them.  This report from NATO shows how well our allies are doing on meeting the 2% of budget for defense that is the guideline.  The U.S. (of course), Greece, the United Kingdom, Estonia and Poland are all at or above 2%.  Estonia and Oland, of course, are frontier members with Russia; Greece is probably more concerned with their traditional enemy, Turkey, also a member of NATO.  If Turkey and Greece go to war, which nation does NATO back?