Trump Voices NATO Frustrations and Praises Turkey at Ankara Summit

US President Donald Trump arrived in Ankara last Tuesday visibly angry that a temporary ceasefire he had agreed with Iran had failed to hold. He threatened to unleash more destruction and mayhem in Iran and called the country's Islamic leadership scum and sick people while sitting beside NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.

Trump stated he was not happy with NATO and complained that members including Britain had failed to help in the Iran war.

He rehashed claims on Greenland and demanded the US sever trade ties with Spain because its socialist government refused to meet new defence spending targets, calling the government bad people. Hours after those comments Trump emerged from a meeting with NATO leaders and said there was a lot of love in that room.

He added that he had never had a NATO meeting that had been so positive and praised Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelenskyy as ingenious for holding his country together in the war against Russia.

Trump held a joint press conference with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Tuesday and said he might not have attended the summit if it had not been held in Turkey. He described a great relationship with Turkey and said Turkey has been in many ways much more loyal than other countries that we thought would be loyal.

Trump compared his bond with Erdoğan favorably to other leaders and said sometimes you get along with the toughest people like Erdoğan and sometimes you don't get along with the weakest most pathetic people.

Ian Lesser, a fellow at the German Marshall Fund who attended the summit, said it had a bipolar quality. Charles Kupchan, a professor of international affairs at Georgetown University, noted there are still 80,000 US troops in Europe. NATO members committed at last year's summit to spend 5% of GDP on defence by 2025.