Waltz Blasts America’s European Allies For Not Meeting Defense Spending Commitments: ‘Unacceptable’

National security adviser Mike Waltz pushed back on Thursday against claims that the United States has not consulted with its allies in Europe as it looks to bring Russia’s war in Ukraine to an end.

Waltz made the remarks during a White House press briefing after officials from the United States met with Russian officials in Saudi Arabia this week without officials from Ukraine.

“I’ll remind everyone that Putin had some type of conflict, invasion, or issue with their neighbor under President Bush with Georgia, under President Obama with Ukraine 2014, not under President Trump 45, and again with President Biden in 2022,” Waltz said. “The war should have been deterred, the war should have never happened, and I have no doubt it would not have happened under President Trump, and will stop under President Trump again.”

“But I just want to push back on this notion of our European allies not being consulted as we’ve entered into this process,” he said. “I already mentioned the immediate phone call President Trump made to President Zelensky. He has talked to President Macron of France repeatedly last week. President Macron convened European leaders and then is coming here on Monday.”

“Prime Minister Starmer is coming next Thursday,” he continued. “I’ve talked to every one of my national security advisor counterparts across the spectrum in Europe. I’ve talked to Secretary General Rutte the Secretary General of NATO.”

“We have repeatedly – oh, by the way, we had half our Cabinet, seven Cabinet officials, including the Vice President, at the Munich Security Conference, all engaging, all listening, and all making sure our allies are heard,” he added. “However, we’ve also made it clear for years, decades even, that it is unacceptable that the United States and the United States taxpayer continues to bear the burden not only of the cost of the war in Ukraine but of the defense of Europe. We fully support our NATO allies.”

He said that while the United States fully supports the NATO Article 5 commitment, it is time for Europe to “step up.”

“One of the things that [NATO] Secretary General Rutte said on our call was this last couple of weeks have been a real wake-up call,” he said. “And I asked him, ‘What have you been missing the last couple of years?'”

“The fact that we are going to enter into a NATO summit this June with a third of our NATO allies still not meeting the minimum, a commitment they made a decade ago, literally a decade ago, with a war on their doorstep, the largest war that they’re all extremely concerned about, but yet it’s, well, somebody else needs to pay,” he continued. “We’ve got other domestic priorities. It’s unacceptable.”

WATCH:

.@MikeWaltz47: “I just want to push back on this notion of our European allies not being consulted as we’ve entered into this process. I already mentioned the immediate phone call President Trump made to President Zelenskyy. He has talked to President Macron… Prime Minister… pic.twitter.com/4Xe9avjZTu

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) February 20, 2025