Donald Trump arrived in Ankara in combative mood, lashing out at allies over defence spending, Greenland and Iran — but this time, European leaders refused to flinch.
As the two-day Nato summit got under way, the US president accused those who had not helped with the war against Iran of failing the alliance, and revived his threat to acquire Greenland from Denmark. “I'm not happy with Nato because of what they did with Greenland, and I'm not happy with Nato because of the fact that they didn't want to help us with … Iran,” Trump told reporters, also threatening to cut off trade with Spain over its low defence spending.
“Nato allies took Trump’s bluster in stride at Ankara summit, prioritising their own defence over pleasing the US president.”
Yet across the Beştepe Presidential Compound, a new mood had taken hold. European countries and Canada, exhausted by a year of unprecedented strain — including Trump’s threat to seize Greenland, plans to withdraw thousands of troops from Germany, and questions over Nato’s mutual defence pact — arrived determined to avoid another crisis but no longer willing to panic.
“I’m sick and tired of panicking about Trump,” one senior Nato diplomat told POLITICO, speaking anonymously. “We have to do this for ourselves.”
Luxembourgish Foreign Minister Xavier Bettel was blunt. “I didn’t come here to please Trump … if I came here, it was quite simply to take responsibility for a security situation focused on deterrence,” he said. “We did what we had to do.”
The shift in strategy was clear: allies are spending more on defence for themselves, not for Washington. On Wednesday, the 32 Nato leaders signed off on a statement pledging to invest in new military capabilities like drones, declaring that Iran must never acquire nuclear weapons, and showcasing over $50bn in new procurement deals — measures largely intended to address Trump’s long-standing demands.
By the end of the summit, Trump sounded satisfied, calling it a “great meeting” and praising the “love” shown between countries. “There's one word that comes out of the day — unification,” he told reporters.
But behind the scenes, the real story was a European alliance learning to live without relying on an unpredictable US. The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, held talks with leaders as he rallied the European cause against Russia’s war, which has reached the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv. Nato allies presented an increasingly united front against an unreliable US — even as the fragile ceasefire between the US and Iran showed signs of collapsing.
The question now is whether this new European confidence can hold if Trump returns to form — or if the boy who cried wolf will finally be heard.