Happy Tuesday! Lionel Messi and Argentina somehow produced an all-time great comeback today, scoring three goals in 13 minutes to beat Egypt 3-2 and avoid a shocking World Cup exit. President Trump, meanwhile, lashed out at U.S. allies at a NATO summit in Turkey and again called for the United States to take over Greenland. And the U.S. launched new strikes against Iran and reimposed oil sanctions in response to Iranian attacks on commercial ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz. Here's your evening update.
Trump Again Stirs Tensions with NATO Allies
President Trump is once again testing the NATO alliance. In Ankara, Turkey, for a two-day summit of NATO's 32 member countries, Trump again questioned the U.S. role in the military alliance and reiterated his provocative desire that the United States should take over Greenland.
Trump has pushed for NATO countries to boost their defense spending, and much of the summit was expected to focus on plans by U.S. allies to increase military spending to 5% of their annual GDP by 2035. Ahead of Trump's arrival, European leaders unveiled billions in arms deals at a forum billed as a "big reveal," meant to showcase steps they are taking to meet Trump's calls for higher spending on their own defense.
NATO said Tuesday that European allies and Canada had increased their core defense spending by more than 19%, or $90 billion, from 2024 to 2025, and five member countries are already expected to meet the 5% target for defense spending as a share of GDP this year, well ahead of the 2035 deadline. (Others are struggling to get there, or are reportedly stretching what counts as defense spending.)
"We're already making remarkable progress," NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said at a defense industry forum on Tuesday. "Here we are now, one year later in Ankara, already delivering results."
Trump wasn't celebrating. Asked by a reporter if he was satisfied with the progress NATO allies have made, Trump said he might have skipped the summit if not for his close relationship with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Trump has repeatedly criticized NATO and threatened to have the United States withdraw from the alliance, and the Iran war has only strained relations further. Trump said he "was very disappointed with NATO" for not helping in the war effort. The Pentagon has announced troop withdrawals from Europe and a six-month review of U.S. forces and bases there.
"We've invested trillions of dollars in NATO," Trump said. "You'd think that they'd be very willing to do something to help us, and they really weren't."
Trump specifically mentioned the United Kingdom, Italy, Germany and France.
"Why are we spending hundreds of billions of dollars, and they're not there for us?" Trump said. "We've always been there for them."
Trump has frequently complained about NATO and falsely claimed that allies haven't supported the United States, questioning their commitment to Article 5 of the NATO treaty, which calls for member countries to come to the defense of any ally that is attacked. The only time that mutual defense clause was invoked was after the 9/11 attacks on the United States.
Trump on Tuesday also raised his contentious desire for the United States to wrest control of Greenland from Denmark. "That should be controlled by the United States, not by Denmark," he said, adding that the issue has hurt his relationship with NATO. He also jabbed at Europe's energy and immigration policies. "If they're not careful with those two things, you're not going to have a Europe anymore," Trump said.
The bottom line: NATO leaders sought to showcase their steps to increase defense spending, but Trump again raised questions about his commitment to the alliance by berating U.S. allies.
Number of the Day: $77.6 Billion
The U.S. trade deficit jumped in May, driven by a 3.3% increase in imports and a 3.2% decline in exports compared to the month before, the Commerce Department said Tuesday. As a result, the overall deficit in goods and services widened by 42.2% to $77.6 billion, the largest monthly deficit since March 2025.
The drop in exports was led by a $6.2 billion decline in gold sales to buyers outside the country. Overall exports of goods fell $11.3 billion to $210.6 billion. Exports of services rose slightly by $0.8 billion, climbing to $107.1 billion.
On the other side of the ledger, imports of goods rose by $12.3 billion to $317.0 billion. Product categories seeing significant increases include consumer goods (up $3.5 billion), industrial supplies and materials (up $3.1 billion), automotive vehicles and parts (up $2.2 billion) and semiconductors (up $1 billion). Imports of services rose $0.2 billion to $78.2 billion.
The bigger picture: The trade deficit has been a central focus of President Trump's, as he continues to insist that the persistently large gap between imports and exports is the result of the United States being "ripped off" by its trade partners. Trump's effort to reduce the gap has met with mixed success so far, though the tariffs he imposed in an effort to reduce imports did produce significantly higher revenues for the federal government from U.S. importers - at least before the Supreme Court ruled that an important segment of his tariffs was illegal.
The Trump administration is currently looking for a more legitimate legal basis to impose additional tariffs. In the meantime, the administration seems satisfied with the rise in revenues from tariff fees, even as the trade deficit remains stubbornly high.
"The Trump administration seems to be at peace, for now, with a large rise in the trade deficit driven by surging imports of capital goods (computers for data centers) so long as it can collect a toll on access to the US market," said economist Brad Setser, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.
A Record Number of Americans Are Taking GLP-1 Weight Loss Drugs
The percentage of Americans taking GLP-1 drugs such as Ozempic or Zepbound to lose weight has nearly quadrupled since 2024, according to a new survey by Gallup. The pollsters find that 11% of U.S. adults say they currently take a GLP-1 medication, up from 3% in 2024, and 15% report that they have used the drugs for weight loss at some point.
Gallup's survey also found that Americans' obesity rate, based on calculations using self-reported height and weight, has dropped from a record high 39.9% in 2022 to 36.5% this year. Gallup's Dan Witters calls that "a statistically meaningful decline that continues to inversely track with increased usage of GLP-1 medicine nationally."
Meanwhile, the percentage of Americans who tell Gallup that they have been diagnosed with diabetes has leveled off since 2023 after 15 years of increases.
Nearly one in five GLP-1 users say they are taking a compounded or custom-mixed version of the drugs, with the lower cost fueling a shift away from brand-name versions, Gallup's Witters writes.
The poll results are based on a web survey of 5,065 adults conducted from May 28 to June 5.
Fiscal News Roundup
- US Strikes Iran and Reimposes Oil Sanctions as Ceasefire Faces One of Its Most Significant Tests – CNN
- Trump Renews Greenland Threats at NATO Summit, Says US Could Remove Troops From Europe – CNBC
- Trump's NATO-Bashing Casts Shadow Over U.S. Pledge to Defend Allies – Washington Post
- NATO Agrees to $50 Billion in Defense Deals to Placate Trump – Bloomberg
- Here's How Much NATO Members Are Spending as a Share of Their GDP – CNN
- 'Please Help Us': Zelenskyy Presses NATO for Air Defense Aid – Politico
- Amid Mounting War Casualties, Pete Hegseth "Defunded and Impeded" Efforts to Protect Civilians, Lawmakers Say – ProPublica
- Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Has Cut Food Assistance for Millions of Americans – Washington Post
- Thousands of Medicare Beneficiaries Thought Their Drug Plan Was Free. Then They Lost It – KFF Health News
- Trump Floats Australia-Inspired Retirement Savings Accounts – The Hill
- Economies Thrive With Older, Smaller Population, New Study Finds – Bloomberg
- Key Health Care Panel Is Again Blocked From Meeting – New York Times
- Walmart Announced Price Cuts. Trump Tried to Take Credit – New York Times
- McConnell Spoke to GOP Leaders Amid Uncertainty About His Senate Return – The Hill
- Pressure Mounts on Platner to End Maine Senate Bid, Including From Longtime Ally Bernie Sanders – CNN
Views and Analysis
- Trump Promised a Foreign Investment Boom. It's Getting Harder to Deliver – Lydia DePillis and Ana Swanson, New York Times
- America Was Being Played. The Bessent Doctrine Says Those Days Are Over – Mohamed A. El-Erian, New York Times
- "Cute": GOP Senator Shuts Down Mike Johnson's Plan to Pass SAVE Act – Ellie Quinlan Houghtaling, New Republic
- There Is No Low-Tax Case for Tariffs – Alex Durante and Kyle Pomerleau, Tax Foundation
- USMCA Uncertainty Is Bad for Business – David Hebert, Wall Street Journal
- NATO 3.0 Is Rising - and Buying American – Mark Rutte, Washington Post
- 'Trump Accounts' Are Now Live. Here's What to Know – Ashlea Ebeling and Richard Rubin, Wall Street Journal
- Where Obamacare Enrollment Is Plummeting – David Nather, Axios
- Why the CDC Refusing to Publish Covid Vaccine Research Is So Worrying – Leana S. Wen, Washington Post
- Almost $1 Billion Later, the US Still Can't Make a Medical Glove – Anna Edney, Bloomberg
- Trump's $40 Billion Travel Slump – K Oanh Ha and Dorothy Gambrell, Bloomberg
- The Bond Market's New Bet on Interest Rates – Courtenay Brown and Neil Irwin, Axios
- The Death of Secular Stagnation – Ryan Avent, Financial Times
- There's One Big Reason Socialist Voters May Not Get What They Want – Eric Levitz, Vox
- 5 Takeaways From STAT's Series on the Soaring Cost of Health Insurance – Bob Herman, STAT