Trump’s An-kara away
Or, will he, won’t he, or willy-nilly
The NATO alliance has wrapped up a truncated and suspenseful leaders’ summit held in Ankara, Turkey. Leaders’ summits, these days, are all about Trump. There is speculation that Ankara 2026 might be his last, but that seems a stretch to me. It would mean no NATO summit in either 2027 or 2028, as Trump doesn’t exit the White House until the end of January, 2029.
There were two versions of Trump on public display to bookmark the summit. The first came in a session with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte on the morning of July 8, prior to the day’s meetings. [i] This one was 18 minutes (they always seem longer), and featured multiple broadsides.
Trump began with a denunciation of Iran using some, shall we say, colourful language: evil people, scum, bad, incompetent, crazy, a cancer. He again tried to suggest that the whole point of his war was to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon. Main message, very clear. He doesn’t like Iran. He also suggested that, as far as he was concerned, peace talks were over. Cue the bad-mouthing.
Next, he unloaded on NATO. NATO failed to give him Greenland. Greenland, he said, is “a big problem for us.” NATO failed to support him in his war with Iran. NATO has been a long-term free-loader, treating the U.S. very badly. The worst of the bunch (this time around) was Spain. What vitriol Trump had left after Iran was reserved for Spain, a “wasted cause,” “bad people.” He gestured to Scott Bessent, the Treasury minion, in the wings—cut off all trade with Spain. No visits either.
He managed to kick the political corpse that is Keir Starmer, on his way out as UK Prime Minister. Keir, he claimed, had told him that Britain would help the US in the Iran war, but only after it was over. Not Churchillian.
Trump was done. It then fell to NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte to try to appease the irascible President. He is practiced at this, and there is a bromance going between them. (Trump even called Rutte ”General” at one point—one of his favourite appellations). Rutte had his arguments ready, as he had heard it all from Trump before. He credited Trump with what he called a “huge” win, in getting NATO countries to boost their defence spending and production (sure, having a massive conventional, not to mention hybrid, war in their backyard helped, but it was really Trump). He reminded Trump that this was pouring millions into the US military-industrial complex. Rutte came back with statistics on how many sorties the Europeans had actually supported during the U.S. attacks on Iran.—look, Donald, 5,000! The Bucharest airport was closed for two days to facilitate US military aircraft, etc. Trump wasn’t really buying it, but he soaked up the praise.
Rutte caught the wave and suggested Trump was a latter-day Eisenhower. Try this for a thought-experiment. Imagine Trump commanding allied armies in the invasion of Normandy. He could have berated Erwin Rommel to death, or suggested that it was all the fault of “sleepy Monty.” [ii]
The other summit bookend came during a closing press conference. For the finale, Trump was joined on stage by his silent minions—Pete Hegseth, Secretary of you know what, Marco Rubio, Secretary of State, Scott Bessent, Treasury Secretary, along with a strangely descending rank of bald men on Bessent’s flank, ending with Stephen Miller, Trump’s Rasputin on immigration.
The Trump end of day press conference lasted a full 40 minutes. [iii] He began by saying that if there was one word that came out of the summit it was…bated breath…“unification.” Not a word uttered in the morning. Trump praised the summit as a great success and claimed that there was a “lot of love in the room.”
Trump did his usual ramble on a multitude of topics, none of which had much to do with NATO. Words in praise of America, in praise of himself, some suggesting he is danger-man. The US military is the strongest in the world and absolutely decimated Iran. It’s the world leader in drones (surprise!). The U.S. economy is going gangbusters. Tariffs are working just fine, thank you. Communism is being defeated (I think he meant Democrats). He boasted about how NATO leaders’ love him, how Tik-Tok loves him. I am #1 on Tik-Tok, he said, crazy numbers. He also boasted about being #1 on the Iranian assassination hit list and compared the dangers of the job of President as being greater than a race-car driver or bull-rider. He seemed to have the actuarial stats down on that.
Trump ended the presser with a couple of billet-doux. One was to the Turkish president, Rejep Tayyip Erdogan, who hosted the summit. Great guy, good friend. Strong leader. (PS. autocrat). Trump claimed it was only his friendship and a personal appeal to Erdogan that kept him from intervening on Iran’s side against Israel. We’ll have to wait for the Trump presidential library papers on that one.
The other billet-deux was to President Xi of China. Good on him for not sending destroyers into the Strait of Hormuz to escort Chinese tankers, and not aiding Iran (though there is lots of open-source reporting that China did just that). [iv]
It may even be that Trump is coming around on Ukrainian President Zolodymyr Zelensky. Trump had a bilat with Zelensky and agreed to allow Ukraine to produce Patriot interceptor missiles under license. The Patriots, previously subject to export controls, are vital to Ukraine’s ability to ward off Russian ballistic missile strikes. Zelensky has called the Russian ballistic missile arsenal, and its use in indiscriminate attacks on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure, Putin’s “last major advantage.” Zelensky also pushed during the Ankara summit for Ukraine to be admitted to NATO. No support there from Trump, but he did ask whether Zelensky would be prepared to meet Putin in Moscow for talks to end the war, reiterating his evidence-free conviction that the Russian president has an interest in peace talks. But he ended with a quip, acknowledging that for Zelensky to travel to Moscow might be difficult, “because there are a lot of drones there.” [v] Nice one, Donald!
Trump departed Ankara, but not on the new, Qatari gifted Air Force One. Rumour had it that the secret service suggested this was unsafe with the resumption of attacks between the U.S. and Iran.
NATO leaders will shrug off the denunciations, take the love, watch over their shoulders on Greenland and US force reductions from NATO, and see what happens next. Putin, at least, won’t like the idea of a NATO love-fest.
An-kara away!
[i] Video-stream at C-span, https://www.c-span.org/program/white-house-event/president-trump-meets-with-nato-secretary-general-rutte/682521
[ii] Al Jazeera, “Five Key takeaways from the NATO summit in Ankara,” July 8, 2026, https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/7/8/five-key-takeaways-from-the-nato-summit-in-ankara;
[iii] NATO summit conclusion press conference by Trump,
; The Guardian, “Sabre-rattling to ‘tremendous love’: erratic Trump dominates final hours of NATO summit,” July 8, 2026, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jul/08/erratic-trump-dominates-final-hours-nato-summit
[iv] Australian Strategic Policy Institute, “Helping Iran, China is a party in the war,” 22 April, 2026, https://www.aspistrategist.org.au/helping-iran-china-is-a-party-in-the-war/
[v] BBC, “Ukraine to get license to produce Patriot missiles, Trump says,” July 8, 2026, https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce8klree690o
So glad my job doesn’t involve standing silently behind someone, on camera, while they speak (nonsense or not) for 45 minutes. Soul destroying.
The Americans who voted for him should all check themselves into mental hospitals. The man is clearly the worst person they have ever had the stupidity to select as president.