"Disappointed," demanding "loyalty" from the "terrible" European allies and indicating that he is only attending the NATO Summit out of "respect for Recep Tayyip Erdogan." This is how the President of the United States, Donald Trump, will arrive at the Alliance meeting taking place this Tuesday and Wednesday in Ankara, Turkey. The situation has been made very clear by both himself and his Administration, which does not bode well. When considering that many EU leaders have responded in one way or another to the magnate's criticisms, a confrontation seems very likely.
Trump is clearly still upset with the countries that did not support him in his campaign in Iran, which he himself initiated and is completely unrelated to NATO activities. With the Prime Minister of Italy, Giorgia Meloni, the German Chancellor, Friedrich Merz, and also with the Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez. "Both for issues related to access to bases and overflights that we saw during Operation Epic Fury, as well as for their lack of willingness to demonstrate a credible and serious path towards the 5% of GDP in Defense goal," stated the US Ambassador to NATO, Matthew Whitaker, directly last week regarding Spain.
Sánchez, a clash that gains votes
Sánchez has not said anything yet, but it is well known that his government believes that any confrontation with Trump earns him votes. Politically, it works well for him, whether by refusing to increase military spending beyond the current 2.1% or by preventing the US from using the Morón and Rota bases directly for war. Although a situation as tense and even historic as last year's in The Hague is unlikely to be repeated, with these two leaders, almost anything is possible.
Meloni, on the other hand, has responded to Trump's attempts at humiliation, stating that the Prime Minister claimed she had asked for a photo together. "Neither Italy nor I humiliate ourselves," she said. The relationship between them has deteriorated significantly after the Italian leader also did not grant him the use of bases for the Iran campaign.
Merz has also stated that Europe will attend the meeting with "total confidence." "And we say to the Americans: 'You depend on us. We depend on you.' Together we are capable of defending ourselves," he said last week.
The NATO Secretary-General, Mark Rutte, will have a lot of very difficult work ahead. He will have to juggle to please Trump without humiliating Europe. The possibility of the US leaving the Alliance has stopped being discussed in Brussels in recent months, but that does not mean that this fear has disappeared. This is what worries the former Prime Minister of the Netherlands the most. That is why he insists so much on spending. And that is why last month he presented at the White House The Trump Trillion, referring to all the investment accumulated by Europe and Canada since 2017, that is, since he first took office.
The magnate seemed unimpressed, but Rutte will not give up and will once again flatter him in Ankara. The need to reach 5% will be among the key messages, and there is one last element that runs the risk of being buried among so many crossed reproaches and flatteries: the situation of the European military industry and its inability to supply countries at the pace they require. It is a vital issue that has been discussed for some time both in NATO and the EU but has not taken off. The theory when rearmament began was that the Europeans' significant budgetary efforts would have a positive impact on the EU economy, that military spending would be a vector of growth and technological advancement, and that all this would combine with less dependence on the United States. However, none of that has happened, and it does not seem likely to occur immediately.