Trump berates NATO, praises Erdogan as summit starts
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- Trump arrived in Ankara on July 7 for a NATO summit, personally greeted by Erdogan on the tarmac and escorted by riders on white horses through empty streets, telling his host he had "chemistry" with him but was "very disappointed with NATO."
- Trump said Washington would consider selling F-35 fighter jets to Turkey — which was expelled from the program in 2019 over its purchase of a Russian S-400 system — and Erdogan said Trump "personally gave us his word" on readmittance.
- Trump singled out Italy, Germany, and France for restricting US forces' use of bases at the start of the Iran conflict, saying he "was testing" allies to see whether they "would be there" for Washington.
- Trump reiterated that Greenland "should be controlled by the United States, not by Denmark," risking a fresh row with a NATO ally at a summit already on edge.
- NATO released figures showing Europe and Canada's core defense spending set to rise 11% to US$634 billion in 2026, alongside tens of billions in new arms contracts unveiled ahead of Trump's arrival.
- Europe and Canada are set to pledge 70 billion euros a year in military support to Ukraine for both 2026 and 2027; Zelenskyy urged allies to prioritize air-defense interceptors and pitched Ukraine's NATO membership.
Why it matters: The F-35 concession reverses Washington's 2019 expulsion of Turkey from the program, handing Erdogan his most concrete defense win in years, while Trump's public rebukes of Italy, Germany, and France over Iran-era base access — and his revived Greenland claim — signal that transactional grievance, not alliance solidarity, now sets the terms of US engagement at this summit.
