Reminder of ‘tremendous love’: Erratic Trump dominates final hours of NATO summit | NATO

An erratic and sometimes irascible Donald Trump said he felt “tremendous love” from Western leaders at the NATO summit, just hours after lambasting them over their defense spending and refusal to help the United States attack Iran.

Mixed messages from the US president dominated the final hours of the two-day meeting in Ankara, Turkey, starting with him publicly calling Iranian leaders scum and renewing his demand for control of Greenland.

He then struck a softer tone at a private meeting of 32 NATO leaders late in the morning, during which he did not mention Greenland or other previous criticisms, but instead told his allies that “we want to stay with you.”

“It was a great meeting, there was a lot of love in that room, a lot of unity,” Trump said shortly afterward during a bilateral meeting with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy, which included a surprise offer to allow Ukraine to manufacture Patriot air defense missiles.

Trump concluded by holding a rambling press conference that barely touched on NATO-related topics, but where he praised Turkish President strongman Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, talked about the U.S. economy and said he was “#1 on TikTok.”

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Still, the shift from angry critic to supporter of NATO – “If there’s one word that stands out today, it’s unification,” Trump said at the end-of-day news conference – will be hailed as a victory for the alliance whose stability is in question.

The summit’s final declaration, signed by Trump and 31 other alliance leaders, affirmed the countries’ “unwavering commitment” to Article 5, which says an attack on one NATO member is an attack on all.

But no date has been announced either for the date of the next leaders’ summit, which is due to take place in Albania, where anti-Trump and anti-government protests are taking place, while it is suggested that it will not take place until 2028.

NATO summits have not always been held every year, but the major concern in parts of Europe is that Trump’s grandstanding at such events risks giving hope to Russian President Vladimir Putin, undermining the alliance’s deterrence and unity.

European leaders feared Trump might be in a bad mood after a dinner Tuesday night at the Turkish president’s compound in Ankara, and agreed not to mention the U.S. team’s 4-1 loss to Belgium earlier this week.

It appeared their worst fears were realized when Trump appeared Wednesday morning with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte and began with a lengthy monologue airing a series of grievances against NATO and several individual members, as well as attacking Iranian leaders.

Trump said he was “very angry with NATO” and complained that alliance members “didn’t want to help us with the number one sponsor of terrorism, which is Iran,” a reference to the refusal of European countries except the United Kingdom to allow the United States to publicly conduct bombing missions from European air bases.

There was specific mockery aimed at the UK, which initially did not allow the US to use RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire for bombing missions in Iran before British Prime Minister Keir Starmer changed his mind and authorized limited attacks on Iranian missile sites.

“The UK wouldn’t let us use the island for two weeks, so we had to go back,” Trump said, repeating complaints he made against Starmer and Britain in the spring, as the war in Iran continued without the regime in Tehran collapsing.

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Rutte’s next-door introduction turned into a litany of complaints. “Greenland is a big deal for us,” Trump said, reaffirming that the self-governing Arctic territory “was very important to the United States, but it’s not important to Denmark.”

Earlier, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said upon arrival that Denmark would defend “every square inch” of its own territory and stressed that Greenland was “of course not for sale.”

Trump made familiar comments about NATO defense spending, despite last year’s agreement among all members except Spain to increase national defense budgets to 3.5% of gross domestic product by 2035 — and thus bring Europe and Canada’s spending in line with that of the United States.

“I am very angry with NATO, because we are paying far, far too much,” he said. “Billions and billions of dollars is too much, because it’s unfair, because we protect them, so we protect them, but they’re not there for us.”

Further anger was reserved for Madrid given its decision to reject the 3.5% target. “Spain does not accept anything and you should not accept them,” Trump told Rutte. “I don’t want to do any business with them, okay? ” the president said, turning to Scott Bessent, the US Treasury Secretary, who “responded: ‘Yes, sir.’

Hours later, the president appeared to soften his tone, telling reporters aboard Air Force One that Spain “came back all the way today. Spain was very generous today.”

Rutte, for his part, has tried to contain Trump with a mixture of flattery and occasional determined interruptions. It’s a strategy that appeared to calm him as he praised Trump for persuading European NATO members to increase their defense spending and match the proportion of U.S. economic output.

“What did you do? [President Dwight] “Eisenhower tried to do it,” he said. “This is your victory.” Trump, interrupting, replied: “That’s why I like him.” However, shortly afterwards he was asked if he considered the ceasefire with Iran to be over, prompting him to respond that it was: “I don’t want to deal with them anymore.” It’s garbage.

It overshadowed what NATO had hoped would be billed as a “peak of achievement” after last year’s 3.5% spending commitment. More than $50 billion in international arms deals were announced at the summit, including a commitment by 12 countries to develop deep-strike missiles with ranges from 300 km to more than 2,000 km (185 to 1,250 miles).

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