HARNWELL: new NATO secretary general demands 400% increase in “air and missile defence”

VIDEO SYNTHESIS / I believe the US should leave NATO. But that aside, here’s a major problem I have with Mark Rutte demanding a huge hike in defence spending.

In April, Italy announced it had increased its defence expenditure from 1.49% of GDP to 2%. It simply employed dodgy accounting to reclassify already existing domestic spending as defence spending. So Italian 😂.

If the US is serious about its NATO “allies” raising their defence spending — it has to be equally serious about checking that spending.

SOURCES:

https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2025/06/09/nato-chief-calls-for-400-boost-in-the-alliances-missile-defenses/

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/italy-says-meet-natos-2-gdp-defence-spending-goal-this-year-2025-04-17/?utm_source=chatgpt.com

https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20250609-russia-fires-record-479-drones-at-ukraine-overnight-kyiv-says

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Hi there folks, thanks for watching!

I’m Benjamin Harnwell, International Editor of “Steve Bannon’s WarRoom” — the Number 1 ranked US political podcast.

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Aired On: 06/09/25