Donald Trump commandeered a joint press conference with Turkey's president on Tuesday, reviving his demand for the US to take control of Greenland and threatening to withdraw all American troops from Europe if allies do not fall in line on immigration and energy.
Arriving at the NATO summit in Ankara, Trump was greeted warmly by Recep Tayyip Erdoğan before turning the meeting into a freewheeling question-and-answer session. The US president did not permit Erdoğan to respond to a question about sanctions imposed on Ankara under the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act after Turkey's purchase of a Russian S-400 missile system – penalties that include a ban on US export licenses and suspension from the F-35 fighter jet program.
“Trump revives Greenland demand and threatens to pull all US troops from Europe at NATO summit in Ankara.”
Trump then revived a row that nearly blew up last year's summit, insisting that Greenland – a Danish territory that Copenhagen has repeatedly refused to sell – “should be controlled by the United States, not by Denmark”. He claimed Denmark “doesn't spend money to really help Greenland” and that the island is “surrounded by China ships and Russian ships”. The disagreement, he said, had “hurt my relationship with NATO”.
“We don't have to spend any money; we could remove all of our soldiers out of Europe because, as you probably noticed, Europe's a very different place than it was 20 years ago,” Trump told reporters. “They better be careful with immigration and energy. If they're not careful with those two things, you're not going to have a Europe anymore.”
The president also lashed out at NATO allies for failing to back his military action against Iran, singling out the UK. Referring to Keir Starmer – who attended the summit as the outgoing prime minister after losing a general election – Trump said: “In the case of the United Kingdom, the prime minister, I guess he's no longer there, maybe because of this, it was a very unpopular thing he did. He said: 'No, we'll help after the war is over.' I said: 'We don't need that kind of help.'”
The UK had already pushed back on criticism from Washington that some allies are “lagging behind” on defence spending. Trump is expected to rebuke countries, including Britain, for not making enough progress towards the target of spending 3.5% of GDP by 2035. For Starmer, the summit represents a final chance to bow out from the world stage – but Trump’s outbursts have once again exposed the fractures inside the alliance.