Sabre-rattling to ‘tremendous love’: erratic Trump dominates final hours of Nato summit

Key Points:

• At the NATO summit in Ankara, US President Donald Trump displayed mixed messaging, initially criticizing European allies for defense spending and lack of support against Iran, but later expressing "tremendous love" and unity with Western leaders in a private meeting.
• Trump renewed his controversial demand for control of Greenland and labeled Iran's leadership as "scum," while also offering Ukraine a surprise license to manufacture Patriot air defense missiles during a bilateral meeting with President Zelenskyy.
• The summit concluded with a joint declaration affirming NATO's "ironclad commitment" to Article 5, but no date was set for the next leaders' summit amid political tensions in Albania and concerns over Trump's unpredictable behavior undermining alliance unity.
• European leaders were alarmed by Trump's grievances aired publicly, including complaints about NATO members' defense spending and refusal to support US bombing missions against Iran, particularly criticizing the UK and Spain for their stances.
• Despite the tensions, significant arms contracts worth over $50 billion were announced, including a 12-nation agreement to develop long-range deep strike missiles, marking the summit as a "delivery summit" following last year's defense spending commitments.