Trump upends NATO summit with Spain trade threats and Iran war warnings

ANKARA, July 8. President Trump turned NATO's annual summit in Ankara into a running confrontation with allied governments within hours of his arrival, threatening to sever all trade with Spain and declaring the Iran ceasefire finished as Washington and Tehran moved toward renewed conflict. The carefully arranged summit agenda gave way to public disputes with capitals that refused to support the U.S. strike campaign against Iran.

New threats across the alliance

Trump called Spain "hopeless" for denying the United States access to its military bases to strike Iran and said he would cut off all trade with the country. He renewed his demand to acquire Greenland, a move that triggered a full alliance crisis in January and drew a pledge from Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen that Denmark would defend its territory. Trump floated removing "all of our soldiers out of Europe," a prospect that alarmed member governments that have relied on the U.S. security umbrella for decades. "I'm not happy with NATO," he said.

On Iran, Trump called negotiations with Tehran a "waste of time" and suggested the United States could destroy "every single bridge in Iran." He offered no signal of a path back to a ceasefire.

Friction with European leaders

Trump posted a meme of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni with the caption "Restraining order needed," following his earlier claim that Meloni had begged him for a photo, which she disputes. He pre-announced the resignation of British Prime Minister Keir Starmer a day before Starmer confirmed it himself. He called himself a "big fan" of Chinese President Xi Jinping and aligned with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan over Israel's objections.

One concrete outcome: Ukraine's Patriot license

NATO members reaffirmed their commitment to collective defense and pledged "unwavering support," including security funding, for Ukraine. In the summit's clearest deliverable, Trump told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky the United States will license Ukraine to manufacture its own Patriot air-defense interceptors, a capability Kyiv has sought for years. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, who has frequently praised the president publicly, said the alliance had been made stronger by the defense spending commitments Trump demanded and downplayed the visible rifts.

The ongoing drawdown of U.S. troops in Europe, the largest shift in the continent's defense posture since the Cold War, remained unresolved at the summit's close.