Can we just give the required 2% to NATO?

We should just match whatever % Germany pays.

Spend the difference on our infrastructure.

That number is the country's total defense spending as a percent of it's GNP and not related to any direct in vestment in NATO itself. It's just a measurement of commitment to things like NATO. The press can't figure it out.

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Move our facilities from Merkal land to Poland.

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This absolutely needs to happen

That’s not how it works. We spend 3.5% of our GDP on our military as a whole. A whole lot goes into that not involving NATO but it is true that the US got into the big spending military game to defend Europe from Russia.

And if you really look at the numbers even more closely Europe has been mooching of of us gen more than the GDP % number would tell you. The US has been the one to fund all of the R&D into new military technologies that the Europeans have benefited from at almost no cost to themselves.

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What is stopping the U.S. from going from 3.5% to 2%?

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The military industrial complex

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Can we just give the required 2% to NATO?

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No. We can't stop spending money on military shite because defense spending is a sacred cow that cannot be harmed, much less slaughtered.

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Spend the difference on our infrastructure.

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like a wall?

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Enlighten them. Go for it

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OK. Here's what is going on.

The U.S. decides how much the U.S. spends on the U.S. military. We have decided that we will spend A LOT on the military. So we spend about 3 or 4% of our entire GDP on our own military. That's our own choice. That money is NOT "given" to NATO. That represents our own spending on our own military.

NATO is a military alliance in which each country agrees to defend each other. We invoked that after 9/11 and the NATO allies were required to assist in the fight against Al Quida, for example. If another NATO country is attacked, every other member, including the U.S, is obligated to help defend.

Under the alliance, each country has to be militarily ready to defend the others. The target is that each country should to spend about 2% of its own GDP on its own military to maintain readiness.

If, for example, France spends less than 2% on its own military, NO OTHER NATO COUNTRY HAS TO SPEND A PENNY MORE. There is no "debt" or "payment" to make up. This is France's payments to maintain France's own military.

Trump is absolutely wrong when he suggests that, for example, France spending less than 2% of its own GDP on its own military causes some kind of burden on the American taxpayer. The American Taxpayer doesn't spend a farking dime to maintain France's military. Never has, never will.

The issue is solely military readiness of each individual country. The 2% issue is solely a statement to each nation within the alliance that each should spend more of their own money on their own military forces.

We don't give 2% of anything to NATO. Neither does Germany, France or Turkey. That is absolutely not what is going on. This is about what other countries spend of their own tax dollars on their own military. U.S. spending on its own military is not affected at all. That is our decision.