U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's attention-grabbing overseas debut may have irritated some key Republicans and alienated allies in Europe, where his statements on Ukraine and NATO went down like a lead balloon.

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth will become on Wednesday the first member of the new Trump administration to visit NATO

NATO members in Europe should bear more of the costs of collective defense, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Thursday, echoing President Donald Trump’s call for allies to spend 5% of their GDP on defense while sidestepping suggestions that the US should hit the same target.

Hegseth urged NATO allies to bolster their defense spending from 2% to 5% of their GDP, noting that the U.S. is attempting to "revive the warrior ethos" as well.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has called for NATO’s European members to increase their role in the defense of Europe as the United States focuses on defending the alliance’s Pacific flank. It is a move that he says will likely require European allies to significantly increase defense spending from 2% of GDP to about 5% of GDP.

European countries need to invest now in defence because it is not possible to assume that the United States' presence on the continent will last forever, U.S.