Elbridge Colby serves as Donald Trump's undersecretary for defence policy, the Pentagon's third-ranking official. He is perhaps the most talked-about appointee to the role in a generation. His backers include J.D. Vance, the vice-president, who introduced Mr Colby in glowing terms at his confirmation hearing in March 2025—an extraordinary gesture of support. Allied officials talk of "what Bridge wants" as often as "what the Trump administration wants".
Before the 2024 elections he told South Korean reporters that South Korea should take "primary, essentially overwhelming, responsibility for its own self-defence against North Korea because we don't have a military that can fight North Korea and then be ready to fight China." He added that America should refrain from imposing sanctions on a nuclear-armed South Korea.
Mr Colby has been pushing Asian allies to meet a 3.5% of GDP defence-spending target—the same figure extracted from NATO members—calling it the new "global standard". Hitting that target would add over $150bn per year in defence spending across the Pacific, the biggest rise among allies in the region in 50 years. Discussions with Australia and Japan appear the most advanced; both have been told to hit 3.5% quickly, provoking flashes of quiet anger among officials who see it as dictating sovereign budgetary decisions. In June 2025 Japan reportedly cancelled an annual foreign- and defence-ministers' meeting with their American counterparts, in part because the Pentagon had bid its ask up from 3% to 3.5%. America has also asked Australia to commit in advance to joining any defence of Taiwan, and pressed Japan for more clarity on how it would respond in such a situation.
At the Munich Security Conference in February 2026 Mr Colby urged European allies to worry less about transatlantic differences over values and to focus on interests and building armed forces capable of deterring Russia. He outlined a businesslike bargain: America will continue to extend its nuclear umbrella over NATO partners if Europeans take responsibility for the conventional defence of their continent. He credited Donald Trump with giving allies a salutary shock that would make NATO stronger. He talked of restoring a culture of burden-sharing that operated during the cold war. He also stated that America's government opposes "friendly proliferation"—the acquisition of nuclear arms by allied countries.
In the context of a possible Chinese invasion of Taiwan, Mr Colby has suggested that TSMC's fabs should be destroyed to prevent them falling into Chinese hands.
Mr Colby is leading a Pentagon review of the AUKUS pact. Before taking office he sharply criticised the sale of Virginia-class submarines to Australia as giving away the "crown jewels"; he has since softened, saying America "should do everything we can to make this work", provided the submarine industry can increase production. In July 2025 he criticised Britain's decision to send an aircraft carrier to the Indo-Pacific, arguing it should focus on the Russian threat instead.
Let's just be friends and make no special effort to ever see each other again.