Fact check: Trump makes false claims about NATO and Greenland during Davos speech

A new CNN fact check says President Donald Trump delivered a series of false and misleading claims during his speech Wednesday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, focusing in part on NATO and Greenland.

According to the analysis, Trump incorrectly claimed the United States has received “nothing” from NATO and suggested the alliance exists solely to protect Europe. CNN notes that NATO invoked its collective defense clause for the first and only time in its history following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, leading member nations to join U.S. forces in Afghanistan. Several allies suffered significant casualties during that conflict, including Denmark, which experienced one of the highest per-capita death rates among NATO members.

Trump also repeated a long-debunked claim that the United States was paying “100% of NATO” before his presidency. NATO figures show U.S. defense spending accounted for about 72% of total NATO defense spending in 2016 and roughly 63% in 2024 — large shares, but far from total funding. The U.S. contribution to NATO’s shared organizational budget has been significantly lower, ranging from about 16% to 22% in recent years.

The fact check further challenges Trump’s assertion that most NATO countries were “paying nothing” toward defense before he took office. NATO data shows non-U.S. members collectively spent hundreds of billions of dollars on defense prior to Trump’s first term, though many did not initially meet the alliance’s 2% of GDP spending target. By 2024, a majority of NATO members had reached or exceeded that benchmark.

CNN also clarifies that NATO’s spending targets are based on each country’s domestic defense budgets and do not involve payments or debts owed to the United States, contradicting Trump’s repeated claims that allies failed to “pay their bills.”

CNN reports the article will be updated as additional claims from Trump’s Davos remarks are reviewed.

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