Trump Wrecks NATO Summit, Declares Iran Ceasefire 'Over'
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- Trump declared the Iran ceasefire "over" and deemed talks with Tehran a "waste of time," suggesting the US could take out "every single bridge in Iran" as Washington and Tehran lurched toward renewed war.
- Trump threatened to cut off all trade with Spain, calling the country "hopeless" for refusing to let the US use its military bases to strike Iran.
- Trump renewed his demand to acquire Greenland — a flashpoint that triggered a January crisis — and floated removing "all of our soldiers out of Europe," alarming allies reliant on the US security umbrella.
- Trump praised China, calling himself a "big fan" of President Xi Jinping, and cozied up to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan over Israel's objections, while declaring "I'm not happy with NATO."
- Trump has waged a running campaign to humiliate European leaders, posting a meme about Italian PM Giorgia Meloni with the caption "Restraining order needed" and pre-announcing British PM Keir Starmer's resignation a day before Starmer confirmed it.
- NATO members nonetheless reaffirmed their commitment to collective defense and pledged "unwavering support" for Ukraine, with the summit's most concrete win being Trump's promise to license Ukraine to manufacture its own Patriot air-defense interceptors.
- NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte downplayed the divides, saying the alliance was made stronger by the defense spending commitments Trump demanded.
Why it matters: Despite Trump's spectacle, NATO formally reaffirmed collective defense and Ukraine support, and Trump personally delivered the Patriot-manufacturing license Kyiv has sought for years — a concrete win buried under the chaos. The harder-to-shrug-off shift is the ongoing drawdown of US troops in Europe, which the source flags as the biggest change to the continent's defense posture since the Cold War.
