Prime Minister Andrej Babiš — often dubbed the „Czech Donald Trump” — may be on a collision course with Washington. While the United States is pressing European allies to spend more on defense, Prague has quietly decided to go in the opposite direction, cutting its military budget in a move that has left NATO partners stunned.

Nearly a Billion Euros Cut

The budget proposal published by Babiš’s new populist coalition foresees defense cuts of around €900 million compared to the previous government’s 2026 proposal. Prague justifies the move by pointing to the need to correct what it describes as past abuses and to protect other spending priorities — particularly healthcare and social programs.

„The previous proposal was full of fraud… we had to deal with that,” Czech Foreign Minister Petr Macinka told journalists in Washington last Friday. The result is that Prague has officially allocated only 1.8% of its budget to core military spending, dropping below the 2% GDP target that all NATO members finally met last year — more than a decade after it was set.

„We Thought 2% Was Ancient History”

The move risks angering both Washington and NATO allies. „I don’t think Rutte will turn a blind eye to this,” one NATO diplomat told Politico anonymously. „He doesn’t want to give Trump an excuse to attack NATO.” A second diplomat was equally blunt: „After The Hague, we all thought 2% was behind us. Staying at 2% with no plans to increase — or actually going backward — won’t help NATO get stronger.”

The White House has also weighed in. „President Trump expects NATO allies to meet their commitment to 5% defense spending,” said White House spokesperson Anna Kelly when asked about the Czech plans.

Creative Accounting: A Highway to Poland as a Defense Investment

On paper, Prague claims it will spend 2.1% of GDP on defense — but 0.34 percentage points of that figure would come from sources outside the defense ministry, including the transport ministry. Babiš reportedly wants to count the completion of the D11 motorway connecting Prague to the Polish border as a military expenditure, which would not normally qualify as hard defense spending.

This is not the first time a NATO member has tried such accounting tricks. Italy floated a similar idea last year, proposing to count a €13.5 billion Sicilian bridge toward the 5% target, but quickly dropped the plan after a sharp American reaction.

According to Petra Guasti, a political science lecturer at Charles University in Prague, the driving motives behind the cuts are Babiš’s historically low interest in defense matters and a desire to redirect funds toward welfare spending. Another factor may be that the defense ministry is controlled by the far-right, pro-Russian Freedom and Direct Democracy party, which has ideological objections to NATO. „There’s no bad faith here — it’s more incompetence,” Guasti said. „And they’re counting on luck to get away with it.”

NATO Commitments at Risk

The cuts carry real consequences for the alliance. The Czech Republic had committed to building a heavy mechanized brigade — equipping thousands of soldiers with new Leopard 2A8 tanks and CV90 infantry fighting vehicles — by the end of this year. Defense Minister Jaromír Zůna assured lawmakers that already-signed contracts would not be canceled, but acknowledged that payments would be delayed and plans to expand NATO-committed capabilities would have to be pushed back.

„Most major procurement and acquisition programs for the defense ministry will essentially be put on hold,” said Jakub Janda of the European Values think tank. Fulfilling even existing commitments will now be „very difficult, because there simply won’t be funds to buy equipment and grow the military.”

Czech President Petr Pavel — a former military commander who is at odds with the ruling coalition — did not hold back in his criticism, calling the overall budget cuts „irresponsible.” While he said he would not veto the proposal, he warned that if the budget passed in its current form, „we would be one of very few countries going against the current. It would seriously undermine the credibility of the Czech Republic as a partner and ally — not only in the eyes of our allies, but also Ukraine.”