President Donald Trump meets with fellow NATO leaders in Türkiye on Wednesday, as the alliance faces growing challenges from both external threats and internal divisions.
Trump has repeatedly expressed his dissatisfaction with NATO since returning to the White House last year, push Member States commit to increasing their defense spending, and more recently castigating NATO Allies for refusing to join the American military action in Iran.
On Wednesday morning, during the Ankara summit, Trump made reprehensible comments, including saying that he had “nothing to do” with Spain, NATO memberwhich has not committed to the alliance’s new target of spending 5% of GDP by 2035.
“Spain is a terrible partner in NATO. They don’t participate. They don’t pay. I don’t want anything to do with Spain. Cut off all trade with Spain, please, including visits,” he said at a news conference in Ankara with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.
Trump also reignited tensions between the alliances when he resurfaced his desire to take control of Greenland, a territory of Denmark, a NATO member.
Read more NATO newsSpeaking to reporters earlier, Rutte touted greater cohesion among member states, higher defense spending and a series of military deals signed at the event as signs of the emergence of “NATO 3.0.”
Despite Trump’s renewed push for the United States to acquire Greenland, Rutte insisted Washington remained committed to the NATO alliance.
“There is a total commitment of the United States to NATO… that commitment is there, without a doubt,” Rutte told reporters upon his arrival at the NATO summit on Wednesday morning. “Furthermore, NATO is there in the interests of the United States to prevent, for example, Russian nuclear submarines from ending up on the shores of the United States. The United States, to remain secure, needs a secure Atlantic, Europe and Arctic, which is why there is a full commitment to NATO.”
U.S. President Donald Trump (R) listens as NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte speaks during a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting January 21, 2026 in Davos, Switzerland.
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Rutte added that the alliance’s pledge to spend 5% of its members’ gross domestic product on defense, agreed last year, was a “big victory” for all its members – and a loss for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“I hope once again today to collectively recognize that Russia poses a long-term threat to NATO territory,” he said before the meetings between allies.
Asked if he had a message for Putin, Rutte replied: “Don’t fool us.”
“My message is that this alliance of a billion people living in Europe, Canada and the United States, this alliance will defend every inch of our territory,” he said. “You can’t win [against] NATO. We are on the defensive. We will never attack anyone. We will only defend our way of life, our democracies, our territory. So don’t joke with us, don’t play with us. »
NATO has been heavily involved in providing military assistance to Ukraine since Russia launched its full-scale war in the country in early 2022. Parts of the alliance’s eastern flank – Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania – share borders with Ukraine.
Moscow strongly opposes Ukraine’s membership in NATO and has claimed that the expansion of the military alliance in Eastern Europe was a reason for launching its so-called “special military operation” in Ukraine.
