US allies ramp up military exercise to send Trump a message

During two recent gatherings in Europe — the 2026 World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland and the 2026 Munich Security Conference in Munich, Germany — European and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) leaders weren't shy about expressing their worries about U.S. President Donald Trump and the state of U.S./Europe relations. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz made it clear that while he valuables the United States as an ally, he considers Trump's policies harmful from a military/national security standpoint.

Bloomberg News reporters Ellen Milligan and Andrea Palasciano, in an article published on February 25, examine recent NATO military exercises and the messages they send to Trump.

"Each year in February," the Bloomberg journalists report, "NATO allies gather on the west coast of Norway to practice hunting enemy submarines. While principally directed at Russia, this year's exercise had an additional audience: Donald Trump…. European naval chiefs leading this year's 'Arctic Dolphin' exercise were keen to demonstrate how they're helping to defend the region, for their own security and that of America."

The Arctic, Milligan and Palasciano note, is "home to Russia's Northern Fleet" as well as Greenland, a Danish colony Trump is obsessed with making part of the United States even though many European leaders are vehemently opposed to that idea.

"The U.S. president has spent recent weeks minimizing Europe's role in NATO, diminishing its service alongside U.S. troops in Afghanistan and questioning whether the alliance would help defend America if it was attacked," the Bloomberg reporters explain. "Naval chiefs are eager to stress that military exercises are operating as usual, despite Trump's grandstanding."

NATO General Secretary Mark Rutte is urging European NATO members to ramp up their military presence in the Arctic.

Similarly, Admiral Joaquín Ruiz Escagedo, a Spanish military leader, told Bloomberg News, "I wouldn't say we lost those capabilities, but I will say that we have not exercised as we had to and we have to regain and rebuild those capabilities as soon as possible…. The U.S., Europe, Canada have all benefited from this alliance in the past. Let's keep what we have."