Trump to Attend NATO Summit in Turkey, Rubio Confirms
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- Donald Trump will attend the NATO heads-of-state summit in Turkey in early July, Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed at a congressional hearing on June 3.
- Marco Rubio called the upcoming meeting "probably the most important meeting in NATO's history," saying certain issues "need to be cleared up and fixed."
- Rubio said Trump's chief frustration with NATO was that some member states refused to allow the US to use their military bases "at a time of crisis."
- Several NATO countries denied US military planes use of their airspace and declined to send naval forces to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz for energy tankers during the Iran campaign.
- European leaders rejected direct involvement in the US-Israeli military operations against Iran, wary of an unpredictable conflict unpopular with their own citizens.
- Trump has repeatedly called NATO a "paper tiger" and threatened to withdraw from the 32-member alliance earlier in 2026, accusing European allies of relying on US security guarantees while offering inadequate support.
- NATO is scheduled to gather in Ankara on July 7-8, 2026; Reuters reported the alliance was considering ending its annual summit practice, partly to avoid a tense Trump encounter in his final year in office in 2028.
Why it matters: The summit on July 7-8 in Ankara forces a direct face-to-face between Trump, who has publicly threatened to abandon the 32-member alliance, and the European members who refused to support the Iran campaign. Rubio's framing of the meeting as potentially NATO's most consequential raises the stakes for resolving the base-access and burden-sharing disputes that nearly fractured the alliance in 2026.
