As it became clear that President Trump was in earnest about reducing America’s military commitment to NATO and European defense, many leaders on the other side of the Atlantic were in a state of shock. Within a three-day period in mid-February, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth addressed the Ukraine Defense Contact Group and Vice President JD Vance spoke at the Munich Security Conference. Their message to Europe was unvarnished: It’s up to you to spend more.

One of the results of the stark change in mood is that the new chancellor of Germany, Friedrich Merz, recently declared his intention to make the Bundeswehr the strongest armed force in Europe.

“This is more than appropriate for the most populous and economically strongest country in Europe,” he told the Bundestag, Germany’s parliament. “Our friends and partners also expect this from us, and what’s more, they are actually demanding it.”

It was partly in support of modernizing and expanding the Bundeswehr that Merz rushed legislation through the outgoing parliament in March to amend the Basic Law, Germany’s constitution, to allow the structural budget deficit to increase beyond 0.35 percent of GDP,........

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