A report suggesting Washington might use the Falkland Islands dispute as leverage to push Britain toward its NATO defense spending commitments prompted a sharp response Sunday from a former Pentagon official, who said the United States’ decades-old neutral stance on the islands has not shifted.
Morgan Murphy, a former press secretary in the War Department, told News Outlet that Washington’s position on Falklands sovereignty remains the same, though he argued the Trump administration could still bring significant diplomatic pressure to bear on London over its military budget.
“You don’t take the security and skip the bill. That is free-riding,” Murphy said, before adding: “Friends tell friends the check is due. Squeeze is accountability.”
The renewed focus on the Falklands dispute followed reports that U.K. Chancellor John Healey is preparing to announce the government will abandon its goal of raising defense spending to 3% of gross domestic product by 2030 when he presents his first budget in October, The Financial Times reported.
A former Pentagon official said the United States has not changed its position on the Falklands and has been neutral on its sovereignty for decades. (Peter Hazell/Getty Images)
The strain is unfolding as the Pentagon conducts a six-month review of U.S. troop deployments across Europe, an effort being led by Under Secretary of War for Policy Elbridge Colby, according to Reuters.
At the same time, Washington has been pressing European allies and Canada to shoulder more of NATO’s conventional defense burden. The United States is still expected to maintain a supporting role, including through its nuclear deterrent, The Associated Press reported.
“We can’t ‘withdraw support’ for sovereignty of the Falklands that was never there,” Murphy said. “Policy experts know the difference between an unsourced whisper to a British paper that ‘nothing is being ruled out’ and an official word from the White House.”
Murphy said the U.S. remains neutral on Falkland sovereignty and continues to recognize British administration of the islands.
U.K. Chancellor John Healey is expected to announce that the government will drop its target of spending 3% of gross domestic product on defense by 2030 when he delivers his first budget. (Peter Nicholls/Pool via Reuters)
Addressing reports from April of an internal Pentagon email suggesting the U.S. could review its position on the islands, Murphy noted the lack of confirmation.
“I have not seen that email. The Pentagon did not confirm it. The official word that followed was the same U.S. position we have now: neutral on sovereignty, recognize British administration,” Murphy said.
“I no longer work at the White House and can’t speak in any way for the administration, but I can say that the islanders voted 99.8% to stay British in 2013,” he said of Falkland Islanders, who voted in a referendum that year to remain a British overseas territory.
Murphy emphasized that Washington, however, would maintain other diplomatic options without altering the status quo in the Falklands and said the U.S. is actively pressuring Britain on defense obligations.
Under current projections, U.K. defense spending would reach 2.7% of GDP by 2030, with the government expected to set a new timeline for reaching 3% on its path toward NATO’s core defense-spending target by 2035.
According to the 2025 Hague Summit Declaration, NATO allies agreed to spend 5% of GDP annually on defense and security-related expenditures by 2035, including at least 3.5% on core defense requirements, and to submit annual plans charting a credible path to meet NATO capability targets.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte (R) and Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof (L) welcome President Donald Trump (C) at the NATO Heads of State and Government Summit in the Hague, the Netherlands on June 25, 2025. (Dursun Aydemir/Anadolu via Getty Images)
“Last year in The Hague they signed up for 5% by 2035, which won headlines, but Britain still will not lock 3% by 2030,” Murphy said. “I’ve watched this town treat a treaty like a suggestion. Friends don’t let allies cheat. So yes, squeeze London on the number.”
He added: “This is the habit: put a number in a communiqué, then treat it as optional. They signed the pledge. They still slide.”
Describing potential U.S. pressure on London as “leverage, not abandonment,” Murphy said pushing Britain to increase defense spending would be “in the best national security interest of the U.S. and the U.K.”
“After Wales in 2014, most of Europe missed the 2% guideline while the U.S. shouldered the load as usual,” Murphy added.
“The United States extends the nuclear umbrella, the intel, the industrial base, the special relationship … You squeeze a budget with tools that move a budget,” he said of Washington’s process.
Elbridge Colby is the Pentagon’s under secretary of war for policy and a key architect of the administration’s push for European allies to shoulder more of NATO’s conventional defense burden. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
“Public pressure from the president. Annual Hague reviews. A dated 3% by 2030, or a funded path to 3.5% core by 2035, before the next UK defense budget. The special relationship is a privilege, not a welfare program.
“Tariffs if the White House wants them,” Murphy warned.
“The UK is playing a central role in NATO and strengthening collective defence across Europe,” a U.K. government spokesperson said, according to Sky News. “We are NATO’s third-largest cash spender on defence and the only European NATO member to commit our nuclear deterrent to the alliance.”
News Outlet has reached out to the Pentagon and 10 Downing Street for comment.
