Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered a sweeping review of U.S. troops in Europe and pressed allies to bankroll their own defense, using a NATO meeting in Brussels on Thursday to lay out a vision he called "NATO 3.0" that would shift the burden of the continent's conventional defense decisively onto Europe. The announcement landed hard in a room full of defense ministers already nervous about Washington's commitment, and it threatened to overshadow the alliance's unity on Ukraine.
What the U.S. troop review in Europe involves
Hegseth said the review of America's force posture would run for up to six months and include consultations with Congress, which has written a minimum U.S. troop level in Europe into law. There are roughly 80,000 American service members stationed across the continent today, from Germany to Poland to bases that anchor NATO's eastern flank, and any drawdown would force allies to rethink plans built for decades around a large U.S. presence.
He paired the review with a financial threat, warning that the United States could withhold a portion of its dues to NATO if "free riding" members keep falling short of their agreed defense-spending targets. The message was unambiguous: the era of American taxpayers underwriting European security at current levels is ending, and capitals that have leaned on Washington need to plan accordingly.
The idea behind 'NATO 3.0'
The "NATO 3.0" framing is not entirely new. It was floated earlier this year by a senior Pentagon policy official as a call for European countries to take "primary responsibility" for the continent's conventional defense while the United States pivots attention and resources elsewhere. Hegseth described it as a return to a "real hardline military alliance" with the capability to deter threats on the continent itself — a pointed contrast with what he cast as a bloated, complacent status quo.
Allies heard something blunter. "Nobody disputes that Europe should spend more — the question is whether you blow up the alliance to get there," said a European diplomat who attended the session and spoke on condition of anonymity. Several governments have already begun, quietly, to plan for a NATO with less America in it.
A sharp word over Iran
Hegseth also lashed out at allies for refusing to let U.S. forces use bases in Europe to launch strikes against Iran during the recent confrontation in the Middle East, calling the refusals "shameful." The remark connected the troop debate to a wider grievance inside the administration: that allies want the protection of American power without sharing its risks. It also underscored how the fragile regional calm remains a live fault line in transatlantic relations.
The timing amplified the unease. The Brussels meeting came on the heels of a Group of Seven summit in France, where President Trump pressed the same themes in person — and where the choreography of American power was on full display, down to the new presidential jet ferrying him between capitals.
For the countries on NATO's eastern edge, the stakes are sharpest. Poland and the Baltic states have built their security around a visible American presence as a deterrent to Russia, and they read any troop review as a test of whether that backstop still holds. Officials there have spent the past year quietly accelerating their own weapons purchases, bracing for exactly the message Hegseth delivered in Brussels.
What comes next
Nothing changes overnight. The review will take months, Congress will weigh in, and any reduction would be phased. But the direction is now explicit, and European leaders left Brussels with a clear assignment: build the capacity to defend themselves, or learn what a thinner American commitment feels like in practice. For an alliance that spent 75 years anchored by U.S. guarantees, that is a generational shift announced in a single afternoon.