A new nationwide poll reveals that a solid majority of Americans continue to support the United States' membership in NATO, even as they increasingly expect European allies to take on a greater share of the defense burden. The Reagan Institute Summer Survey, conducted ahead of the 2026 NATO Summit in Ankara, found that 73% of Americans believe keeping the United States in the alliance is important to the country's security and prosperity. This support cuts across party lines, including 61% of self-identified MAGA Republicans, a group often portrayed as skeptical of traditional alliances.
The survey also shows strong backing for NATO's core collective defense principle, Article 5. According to the poll, 72% of Americans would support a U.S. military response if a NATO ally were attacked. Among MAGA Republicans, that figure stands at 69%. These numbers suggest that despite years of sharp rhetoric from some political leaders about allies not paying their fair share, the American public broadly understands NATO as a strategic asset that deters adversaries and ensures the United States does not face global threats alone.
However, the poll also highlights a paradox in American attitudes. While 55% of Americans overall oppose withdrawing from NATO, a significant 63% of MAGA Republicans support leaving the alliance. This indicates that many Americans who are skeptical of the institution itself still value the practical security outcomes it delivers. They view NATO as important to U.S. security and support defending allies under attack, yet they harbor doubts about continued U.S. participation in the alliance's current form.
European leaders should take note of these findings, as they point to a shift in how the alliance is judged. The survey suggests that continued U.S. support for NATO may depend less on abstract arguments about transatlantic solidarity and more on tangible evidence that the alliance is prepared to meet modern security challenges. American policymakers from both parties have long argued that European allies should assume a greater share of responsibility for transatlantic security and increase their own defense spending.
Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine accelerated that process, prompting significant defense investments, particularly in Eastern Europe. Now, the alliance has entered a new phase. Every NATO ally is meeting the Wales Summit guideline of spending 2% of GDP on defense. The historic goal of 5% of GDP, set at last summer's NATO Summit in The Hague, reflects a recognition that the security environment has fundamentally changed. The alliance requires investments in military readiness, modernized capabilities, and industrial capacity.
The significance of this commitment extends beyond defense planning. It has become a political test of NATO's credibility in the United States. Many Americans, particularly those skeptical of the value of U.S. alliances, are not judging NATO by its founding principles or summit declarations. They are judging it by performance. The question moving forward, the survey suggests, is whether America's allies are making meaningful investments in their own defense so the alliance is prepared to meet evolving security challenges together.
The upcoming NATO Summit in Ankara is the latest testing ground for this question. Allies have demonstrated measurable progress toward the commitments they made in The Hague in 2025. Total defense and security spending has already reached around 4% of GDP, just a year later. There are early indicators that real increases in spending will accelerate procurement and force modernization, strengthen defense industrial production, and deliver the capabilities required to deter aggression.
No one in Europe should view this as a concession to American political pressure, according to the survey's analysis. Rather, it is an investment in the long-term health of the alliance itself. Defense investment, modernization, and industrial base growth will directly benefit the security and economies of European countries, not just the United States. On the U.S. side, the Trump administration's National Security Strategy focus on enabling Europe to stand on its own feet, including by taking primary responsibility for its own defense, should not be viewed as the United States walking away from NATO. Instead, it is an opportunity for European partners to play their appropriate role.
As NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte put it during a speech at the Reagan Institute in Washington earlier this year, this is a move from unhealthy co-dependence to a transatlantic alliance grounded in true partnership. The strongest argument for keeping America in NATO is not rhetoric but results. If European allies continue to strengthen their defense capabilities and make tangible progress toward the transatlantic burden shift, they will reinforce the alliance's foundation for years to come.
