President-elect Donald Trump spoke on the phone with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg Friday. Stoltenberg “congratulated the President-elect on his election victory and said that he was looking forward to working with him and his national security team,” according to a NATO press release. Both men also “underlined NATO’s enduring importance” and discussed security matters, including plans to combat terrorism. Earlier this year, Trump surprised many in the US and Europe by making statements dismissive of the NATO Alliance during the presidential campaign. Trump criticized European allies at the time for spending too little on defense while the US carried the cost burden for NATO. In their first conversation since Trump’s election on Nov. 8, he and Stoltenberg “agreed that progress has been made on fairer burden-sharing, but that there is more to do.” (See also Stoltenberg: NATO Alliance Needed More Than Ever.)
House, Senate Unveil Competing Proposals for 2026 Budget
July 11, 2025
Lawmakers from the House and Senate laid out competing versions of the annual defense policy bill on July 11, with vastly different potential outcomes for some of the Air Force’s most embattled programs.