Trump lashes out at allies, then praises them, at tumultuous NATO summit in Ankara

A tale of two summits

President Trump's behavior at the two-day NATO gathering in Ankara, Turkey, veered sharply between hostility and affection. Upon arrival on Tuesday, he lashed out at the United Kingdom, Germany, France and Italy for failing to support the U.S. war with Iran. By Wednesday evening, he was praising those same leaders for ramping up military spending and describing a closed-door meeting as filled with "love." The whiplash has become a familiar routine for allies, who have learned to coax out the friendlier Trump through flattery.

It was sort of pretty wild.

Threats and insults

On Wednesday morning, Trump escalated his rhetoric, threatening to cut off all trade with Spain for obstructing the war effort and failing to spend enough on defense. He called Spaniards "hopeless, bad people," according to POLITICO. He also repeated his claim that Greenland should be part of the United States, saying it was "very important" for America but not for Denmark. The president scolded Britain, France, Germany and Belgium for not helping during the Iran conflict, and during the meeting he ordered new airstrikes against Iran, The New York Times reported.

Flattery and 'love'

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte worked to placate Trump, praising his strikes on Iran and crediting him with transforming the alliance by pressing Europe to spend more on defense. "Grab the win. It's there. You did it," Rutte told Trump. By the summit's end, Trump appeared to embrace the praise, telling reporters that European leaders had privately told him, "Sir, we love you." He mused, "Maybe they're doing it to get to me. And in a way they did."

Grab the win. It's there. You did it.

They said, 'Sir, we love you.' These are grown people saying that. Isn't that nice?

The alliance's quiet progress

Beneath the Trump spectacle, the alliance conducted a more traditional summit focused on military spending, trans-Atlantic industrial cooperation, and continued support for Ukraine in its war with Russia. The final communiqué, a one-page, six-paragraph declaration, was widely dismissed as boilerplate, but it reaffirmed collective defense and Ukraine support. European leaders largely shrugged off Trump's insults, viewing them as familiar and not backed by specific threats to withdraw troops or leave the alliance. The summit also saw progress on plans for Europeans to take primary responsibility for conventional defense, allowing Washington to focus on China, as Trump has demanded.

It really is a tale of two summits. You have all the preexisting concerns about the Trump agenda, some on display yesterday, as he ticked off all his grievances. And then there is the more traditional summit, with a preset agenda, which is a lot about money and how to spend it.

A papered-over rift

Diplomats acknowledged that touchy issues, including control of Greenland, were largely papered over. Many NATO leaders now question the value of annual summits, a practice started under former Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg. Mark Rutte had bent over backward to ensure the Ankara meeting went smoothly, twice traveling to Washington to convince Trump of NATO's value and defending his Iran war policy against the views of nearly all other members. Trump's good relationship with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan helped keep the atmosphere relatively calm, according to analysts.

Trump's repeated insults and empty threats are wearing off. If he were to say we're pulling 40,000 troops out of Europe, something specific, that would really rattle.