Trump’s Turbulent Rhetoric Gives Way to Warmth as NATO Summit Concludes in Ankara

President Donald Trump, displaying erratic and occasionally combative behavior, claimed he sensed a “tremendous love” from Western leaders at the NATO summit, merely hours after sharply criticizing their defense expenditures and reluctance to support U.S. strikes on Iran.

The U.S. president’s contradictory statements overshadowed the concluding sessions of the two-day meeting in Ankara, Turkey, as he opened by denouncing Iran’s leadership as “scum” and reiterating his desire to take control of Greenland.

Later, during a closed-door session with 32 NATO leaders late in the morning, he struck a conciliatory note, omitting prior grievances such as Greenland and assuring partners, “we want to remain with you.”

“It was a great meeting, there was a lot of love in that room, a lot of unity,” Trump remarked shortly afterward during a bilateral talk with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, which featured an unexpected proposal to license Ukrainian production of Patriot air defense missile systems.

Trump closed the event with a meandering news conference that scarcely touched on NATO matters; instead, he commended Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, touted the U.S. economy, and declared himself “No. 1 on TikTok.”

Nonetheless, the transformation from harsh critic to NATO advocate—“if there’s one word that comes out of today it’s unification,” Trump stated at the final press briefing—will be viewed as a win for an alliance whose cohesion had been under scrutiny.

The summit’s concluding declaration, endorsed by Trump and 31 other member leaders, reaffirmed their “ironclad commitment” to Article 5, the principle that an attack on one NATO member constitutes an attack on all.

However, no date was set for the next leaders’ meeting, planned for Albania—where demonstrations against Trump and the government are underway—with suggestions it might be delayed until 2028.

Although NATO summits have not been held yearly, many European officials fear that Trump’s theatrical conduct at these gatherings could embolden Russian President Vladimir Putin, weakening both deterrence and allied solidarity.

After a Tuesday evening dinner at the Turkish president’s residence in Ankara, European leaders worried Trump was irritable and collectively decided to avoid referencing the U.S. team’s 4–1 defeat to Belgium earlier in the week.

Those apprehensions seemed confirmed when Trump joined NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte on Wednesday morning and launched into a prolonged tirade, voicing complaints about the alliance, specific member states, and Iran’s leadership.

Trump said he was “very upset with NATO” and asserted that members “didn’t want to help us with the number one state sponsor of terror, that’s Iran”—a pointed reference to European nations, excluding the UK, denying the U.S. use of their airbases for publicly acknowledged bombing raids.

He aimed a particular barb at Britain, which initially barred the U.S. from using RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire for operations against Iran until Prime Minister Keir Starmer reversed course and permitted restrained strikes on Iranian missile facilities.

“The United Kingdom wouldn’t let us use the island for two weeks, so we had to fly back,” Trump said, repeating criticisms he leveled at Starmer and Britain in the spring as the Iran conflict dragged on without the Tehran regime’s collapse.

The appearance alongside Rutte devolved into a catalog of grievances. “Greenland is a big problem for us,” Trump said, reviving his assertion that the autonomous Arctic territory “was very important for the United States, but it’s not important for Denmark.”

Earlier, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen arrived stating Denmark would protect “every inch” of its territory and stressing that Greenland was “of course not for sale.”

Trump recycled standard critiques of NATO defense spending despite last year’s pact—excluding Spain—by all members to raise national defense outlays to 3.5% of GDP by 2035, aligning European and Canadian expenditure with that of the U.S.

“I’m very upset with NATO, that we pay far, far too much,” he said. “Billions and billions of dollars, too much, because it’s unfair, because we’re protecting them, so we protect them, but they’re not there for us.”

Fresh anger was directed at Madrid for its rejection of the 3.5% goal. “Spain doesn’t agree to anything, and you shouldn’t carry them,” Trump told Rutte. “I don’t want to do any trade with them, all right?” the president added, turning to U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who replied: “Yes, sir.”

For his part, Rutte sought to manage Trump with a blend of praise and firm interjections. The approach seemed to soothe the president, who then credited Trump with convincing European NATO members to boost defense spending and match the U.S. share of economic output.

“You did what [President Dwight] Eisenhower tried to do,” Rutte said. “It’s your win.” Trump interjected, “That’s why I like him.” Shortly after, asked whether he viewed the Iran ceasefire as finished, he affirmed: “I don’t want to deal with them any more. They’re scum.”

The spectacle eclipsed what NATO had hoped to frame as a “delivery summit” after last year’s 3.5% spending commitment. Over $50 billion in international arms deals were unveiled during the event, including a pledge by 12 nations to co-develop deep-strike missiles ranging from 300 km to beyond 2,000 km.

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