Can Europe defend itself without America

Five charts to start your day

This is a question that features heavily in Trump's election campaign. It's a question worth answering because it's not exactly clear.

For 75 years, the US has been Europe's military backbone, but that could all change, so we should not take the US for granted anymore. Donald Trump is coming back to the White House, and he has grand plans to shake things up.

So let's dive into the numbers.

European NATO allies currently spend €476bn (approximately $520bn) on defence, while the US spends around $877bn. That's right! The entire European continent combined spends less than the US on defence, despite having a direct military threat on its doorstep – Russia. You cannot blame the Americans for asking, "what's in it for us"?