# Trump calls NATO "ridiculous" days before the Ankara summit

> American president Donald Trump struck hard again on his Truth Social platform, calling the continuation of a "one-sided" relationship between the UnitedStates

- Author: Maxime Marquette
- Publisher: MadMax (https://mad-max.co)
- Section: Column
- Published: 2026-07-05
- Canonical URL: https://mad-max.co/en/article/trump-qualifie-l-otan-de-ridicule-a-quelques-jours-du-sommet-d-ankara

## Introduction: the provocation that always precedes the negotiation

### A calculated outburst on Truth Social

American president **Donald Trump** struck hard again on his **Truth Social** platform, calling the continuation of a "one-sided" relationship between the **United** **States** and **NATO** "ridiculous." "**They** weren't there for us!!!" he wrote, in a line as blunt as it is revealing of his persistent frustration with his European allies. **This** statement comes less than a week before the Atlantic Alliance summit scheduled for **July 7-8** in **Ankara**, **Turkey**.

With **Trump**, timing is never innocent. **A** public provocation days before a major summit is not a slip-up; it is a tested negotiating tactic: apply maximum pressure on your partners before official talks even begin. Secretary of **State** **Marco Rubio** had already predicted, back in May, that this tension would sit at the heart of the discussions in **Ankara**, calling this summit one of the "most important" in the Alliance's **77-year history**.

### A method already tested during his first term

This pattern is nothing new. **From** his very first term, **Trump** repeatedly launched blistering attacks on NATO, going as far as publicly floating an American withdrawal from the **Alliance** if European partners did not raise their defense budgets. **This** stylistic continuity confirms that verbal provocation is an integral part of his negotiating method, far beyond a simple isolated flash of anger.

**European** diplomats, seasoned by this past experience, have learned not to panic at the slightest presidential tweet. **They** now know how to read, behind the message's apparent brutality, a coherent negotiating strategy aimed above all at maximizing leverage before official talks open.

*I'll say it plainly: on the strategic substance, Trump is not wrong to push Europe to invest more in its own defense. But the method — public, blunt, on the eve of a summit meant to project transatlantic unity — remains typically disruptive, and that is precisely what worries allied chancelleries.*

## A real budget imbalance, a criticism that isn't baseless

### The numbers fueling American frustration

It would be dishonest to dismiss **Trump**'s criticism as pure rhetoric. The historic imbalance in defense spending within NATO is a fact documented for decades. **Under** constant pressure from **Washington**, Alliance leaders committed last year, at the **Hague** summit, to raising defense spending to **5% of GDP by 2035** — an ambitious target that, if met, would fundamentally transform the **Alliance**'s financial balance.

NATO Secretary General **Mark Rutte** readily acknowledges the scale of the change underway. **According** to him, European members and **Canada** spent **$90 billion more** on defense in **2025** compared to the previous year, bringing the total past **$570 billion**. **Combined** over two years, this effort represents roughly **$250 billion in additional spending** by **Europeans** and **Canadians** on their own security.

### A catch-up that remains uneven across capitals

**Despite** this overall acceleration, the effort remains uneven from one capital to another. **Some** southern **European** countries still struggle to reach the Alliance's minimum thresholds, while others, particularly in the north and east of the continent, far exceed the targets. This unevenness directly feeds Trump's argument, as he refuses to treat NATO as a uniformly virtuous monolithic bloc.

It is precisely this persistent disparity that **Rutte** is trying to correct through constant diplomatic pressure on the most reluctant capitals, aware that the credibility of the entire **Alliance** with **Washington** depends on the collective ability to show uniform progress rather than isolated exceptions.

*It's one thing to acknowledge, as I do, that Trump is right to demand greater European financial commitment. It's another to keep repeating that "Europe doesn't pay its share" when the numbers show an unprecedented acceleration in European defense investment over the past two years.*

## Trump's anger, fueled by Iran too

### A resentment that goes beyond the military budget alone

Beyond the purely budgetary question, **Trump** harbors a broader frustration toward his European allies, tied in particular to the lack of direct support from the **United Kingdom** and **France** during the American-Israeli war against **Iran**. **This** grievance, mixed with the usual budget criticism, fuels an increasingly harsh presidential rhetoric toward an **Alliance** he considers insufficiently reciprocal in its support for **Washington**.

This grievance illustrates a deeper tension in **Trump**'s foreign policy doctrine: he expects unconditional support from his allies on the theaters of operation he deems priorities, including ones that fall outside NATO's historic mandate, which is centered on Euro-Atlantic collective defense rather than interventions in the **Middle** **East**.

### A mandate divergence rarely spelled out publicly

**Few** commentators bother to point out that NATO, as a collective defense treaty, was never meant to automatically intervene in external theaters like **Iran**, absent a unanimous decision by its **32** members. This legal and political nuance often escapes public debate, fueling confusion sustained, whether deliberately or not, by American presidential rhetoric.

**Clarifying** this distinction is not about excusing the lack of solidarity from certain European allies on sensitive files, but about recalling that the **Alliance**'s legal architecture places precise limits on what **Washington** can legitimately demand of its transatlantic partners.

*There's a contradiction Trump never seems to resolve: demanding that NATO behave like a fully reciprocal alliance, while bristling when its European members hesitate to commit militarily to theaters outside their historic mandate, like Iran.*

## Rutte, the man of transatlantic compromise

### A calculated but effective flattery strategy

**Mark Rutte** has turned managing the American presidential ego into a diplomatic skill in its own right. He has publicly praised **Trump**'s strategy toward **Iran** while acknowledging his legitimate frustration with certain allies. **This** approach, a deft blend of flattery and firmness on the Alliance's core principles, has so far managed to avoid an open rupture between Washington and its European partners.

**Rutte** summed up his vision with a striking line addressed directly to **Vladimir Putin**: "He is not afraid of commitments, he is afraid of their implementation, and that is exactly what we are doing, **Vladimir**. **We** will defend ourselves." **This** statement, delivered from Washington ahead of the summit, was meant both to reassure Trump of the Alliance's resolve and to send a direct message to the Kremlin.

### A constant dialogue with the White House

**Rutte** maintains frequent direct exchanges with **Trump**, a personal approach that stands in sharp contrast to the more formal style of his predecessors at the head of the **Alliance**. This deliberate closeness allows him to anticipate the most difficult presidential outbursts and respond to them quickly, before they escalate into a major diplomatic crisis between Washington and its allies.

**Some** European diplomats, however, worry about this extreme personalization of NATO diplomacy, fearing it makes the **Alliance** excessively dependent on the personal relationship between a secretary general and an American president, at the expense of a more robust institutional architecture less vulnerable to personnel changes.

*Rutte has understood something few European leaders seem to have grasped: managing Trump requires a precise mix of public validation and firmness on substance. It's a risky diplomatic exercise, but so far it has worked remarkably well at preserving the Alliance's unity.*

## Article 5, a cornerstone still being reaffirmed

### An "ironclad" commitment despite the public tensions

**Despite** the American presidential rhetoric, a text approved by NATO ambassadors and reviewed by **Reuters** confirms that **Alliance** leaders, **Trump** included, are set to reaffirm an "ironclad commitment" to the collective defense guaranteed under **Article 5** of the **Washington** treaty at the Ankara summit. **This** provision, which states that an attack on one member is an attack on all, has been invoked only once in the Alliance's history: after the September 11 attacks against the United States itself.

The final declaration expected in **Ankara** will also describe **Russia** as a "long-term threat to Euro-Atlantic security and stability," while affirming that "**Iran** can never possess a nuclear weapon." This text, negotiated by all 32 allies, still needs to be formally endorsed by leaders at the close of the July 8 summit.

### Diplomatic language weighed word by word

Drafting this kind of final declaration takes weeks of negotiation among diplomats from the **32** member countries, with every word weighed to avoid offending a sensitive capital while maintaining sufficient firmness toward **Russia** and **Iran**. This process, invisible to the general public, illustrates the bureaucratic complexity behind every official sentence issued by the Alliance.

The mere fact that all **32** allies, **Trump** included, agree on such a firm characterization of the Russian threat shows that, despite the surface-level rhetorical tensions, the fundamental strategic consensus on the nature of the danger remains solid within the Atlantic **Alliance**.

*This is where the pro-Western stance must prevail over the media anecdote: whatever the inflammatory tweets, what really matters is that the commitment to Article 5 remains ironclad on paper. And for now, despite Trump, it is.*

## Seventy billion euros for Ukraine, a strong signal

### A financial commitment that refutes doubts about allied unity

**According** to the summit text reviewed by several outlets, including **Reuters** and **Euronews**, NATO members are set to pledge **€70 billion** in military assistance to **Ukraine** for **2026**, with a promise to maintain "at least equivalent levels" of support in **2027**. Ukrainian president **Volodymyr Zelensky** is expected to attend the summit, confirming the continuity of Western support despite internal tensions over burden-sharing.

This colossal sum, negotiated in the middle of a public controversy over the **Alliance**'s reciprocity, shows that the rhetorical tensions between **Trump** and his partners have not, so far, dented the concrete commitment to Ukraine's defense. **Rutte** summed it up this way: "Our security is interconnected. Ukraine has shown that we will not be deterred by Russian aggression."

*This is exactly the kind of news that should reassure Kyiv and worry Moscow: no matter the media noise around transatlantic tensions, the money and the weapons keep flowing to Ukraine. That is the only measure that truly matters on the ground.*

## "NATO 3.0," Rutte's vision for the post-Trump era

### Europe called on to take over capability leadership

**Rutte** has spent several months championing the concept of "**NATO 3.0**," a transformed **Alliance** in which **Europeans** and **Canadians** take on a much larger share of the continent's conventional defense, while the United States retains its long-term presence and, above all, its nuclear umbrella, "the ultimate guarantor of our freedom," in his own words spoken before the **Atlantic Council**.

**This** vision represents a structural attempt to respond precisely to **Trump**'s grievances: rebalancing the burden without weakening the collective security architecture that has kept peace in Western **Europe** for **77 years**. **Countries** like **Estonia**, **Latvia**, **Lithuania**, and **Poland** already far exceed the set targets, while **Germany** plans to double its defense investment by **2029**, reaching more than **€150 billion a year**.

*This shift toward a more militarily autonomous Europe, while remaining anchored to the American nuclear umbrella, is exactly the direction the West should take. Trump will have, in spite of himself, accelerated a welcome European awakening about its own security responsibility.*

## The Baltic states, model students under the Russian threat

### An existential urgency driving the effort

It is no surprise that the countries geographically closest to **Russia** are also the most disciplined in their defense investments. **Estonia**, **Latvia**, and **Lithuania**, facing a direct existential threat since the invasion of **Ukraine** in **2022**, have long since exceeded the thresholds required by the **Alliance**, without waiting for repeated demands from **Washington** to act.

**This** Baltic discipline stands in sharp contrast to the historic slowness of certain members farther from the Russian border, feeding precisely into **Trump**'s sense of injustice toward an **Alliance** where the defense effort remains, even today, unevenly distributed among its 32 members.

*There's an obvious geopolitical lesson here: proximity to an existential threat instantly clarifies budget priorities. The Baltic states didn't need presidential tweets to understand the urgency of rearming against Russia.*

## Arms contracts, the economic dividend of rearmament

### Tens of billions announced in Ankara

**Rutte** confirmed that tens of billions of dollars in new defense contracts would be announced at the **Ankara** summit, a concrete signal of the industrial transformation underway within the **Alliance**. "The result is not just improved security," he told the Atlantic Council. "We are in the early stages of a defense industrial revolution that will help grow our economies" and support hundreds of thousands of jobs.

**This** economic dimension of European rearmament deserves attention: beyond a simple response to American pressure, massive defense investment generates considerable industrial spillover for European economies themselves, creating a virtuous circle between strengthened security and economic dynamism.

*This economic dividend from rearmament is too often overlooked in public debate. Europe isn't just spending more to satisfy Washington: it is rebuilding a defense industrial base it had sorely lacked since the end of the Cold War.*

## The Hague precedent, a scenario worth repeating

### Lessons from a previous successful summit

**European** officials hope for a repeat of the scenario seen at the previous summit in **The Hague**, where **Trump** ultimately reaffirmed American commitment to the 32-member Alliance and its Article 5 mutual defense pact, while publicly praising his counterparts. This precedent points to a recurring dynamic: Trump's pre-summit rhetoric, however harsh, has not always translated into an actual rupture at the official meetings themselves.

**This** dynamic, while reassuring, should not be taken for granted indefinitely either. **Every** summit represents a fresh test of the solidity of American commitment, in a context where **Washington**'s geopolitical priorities appear increasingly oriented toward the **Indo-Pacific** and the **Middle East**, potentially at the expense of attention paid to European security.

*I remain cautious about this reassuring precedent. The fact that Trump held the line at The Hague guarantees absolutely nothing for Ankara. Every summit is a new gamble, and Europe cannot afford to base its entire security strategy on the hope that history repeats itself favorably.*

## Turkey, a strategic host with an ambiguous position

### Ankara, a geopolitically loaded choice

The choice of **Turkey** as host country for this crucial summit is no accident. **A** NATO member for decades, **Turkey** occupies a unique geopolitical position, at the crossroads of **Europe**, the Middle East, and Russia's sphere of influence, maintaining complex and sometimes ambiguous relations with Moscow while remaining formally committed to the Atlantic Alliance. The summit will be held at the **Bestepe presidential complex**, under the chairmanship of **Mark Rutte**.

**This** symbolic location is a reminder that NATO remains a geographically diverse alliance, whose cohesion depends on the ability to reconcile sometimes divergent national interests, from the **Baltic** to the eastern **Mediterranean**, against threats that are not limited to the Russo-Ukrainian border alone.

*Turkey perfectly illustrates the complexity of keeping a truly united Alliance in the face of Russia. Hosting this summit in Ankara is also a reminder that Western unity remains a permanent balancing act, never settled once and for all.*

## What Putin is watching from Moscow

### A window of opportunity the Kremlin is watching for

**Every** public display of discord within NATO, however minor, is scrutinized closely by the **Kremlin**, always on the lookout for a window of opportunity to test Western cohesion. **Trump**'s criticisms, even if they do not translate into an actual shift in American policy, inevitably feed the Russian narrative of a West divided and weakened by its own internal contradictions.

It is precisely to counter this narrative that **Rutte** chose to address Putin directly in his public statements, insisting that the concrete implementation of defense commitments, not mere declarations of intent, constitutes the real deterrent against Russia.

*Every public criticism Trump levels at NATO, even when grounded in legitimate budget arguments, hands Putin a free propaganda angle. That is the collateral cost of an American diplomacy that favors media provocation over strategic discretion.*

## What American public opinion says about the NATO burden

### Persistent but nuanced skepticism among American voters

American polling on NATO reveals public opinion far more nuanced than presidential rhetoric suggests. A majority of Americans continue to support U.S. membership in the Atlantic Alliance, while sharing Trump's frustration over the historic imbalance in budget contributions. This duality partly explains why the president can afford harsh rhetoric without triggering a major political rupture at home.

Republican voters, in particular, are receptive to the argument that Europe must "pay its fair share," a recurring theme since Trump's first term. But this receptiveness does not necessarily translate into a desire to see the United States leave the Alliance, which limits the president's real room for maneuver on this issue, despite his most inflammatory statements.

### Congress, the quiet guardian of transatlantic commitment

Beyond the executive branch, the U.S. Congress, including a significant portion of the Republican wing, remains committed to maintaining American engagement with Article 5 and the Atlantic Alliance as a whole. Several laws passed in recent years are aimed precisely at limiting a president's ability to unilaterally withdraw the United States from NATO without Senate approval.

This institutional architecture serves as an important safeguard against presidential rhetorical fluctuations, a reminder that American foreign policy, even under Trump, remains subject to structural checks that far exceed the personality of a single man, however influential he may be in setting the tone of public debate.

*We must resist the temptation to confuse Trump's media noise with a structural shift in American foreign policy. Congress and public opinion itself act as shock absorbers against presidential rhetorical excess, and that is good news for the Alliance's stability.*

## The fragile balance between budgetary firmness and strategic unity

### A risky but potentially winning bet for the West

In the end, Trump's strategy of constant pressure on his European allies, however uncomfortable diplomatically, has produced tangible results: an unprecedented acceleration in European defense investment, a structural rebalancing set in motion with the NATO 3.0 concept, and, for now, a sustained financial commitment to Ukraine worth €70 billion for 2026 alone.

The real risk lies not in the rhetoric itself, but in the possibility that this constant pressure could eventually erode the mutual trust necessary for any effective collective defense alliance. The West must learn to distinguish healthy tactical pressure from unintended strategic weakening.

*I fundamentally believe the West emerges stronger, not weaker, from this Trumpian pressure over burden-sharing. But that conviction comes with a warning: the margin between healthy pressure and irreversible rupture remains dangerously thin.*

## Conclusion: Ankara as a test of collective maturity

### A summit under intense media and strategic scrutiny

The Ankara summit on **July 7-8** will unfold under the weight of this fresh public controversy, but the Alliance's fundamentals — commitment to Article 5, massive financial support for Ukraine, accelerating European defense investment — remain solid despite the American presidential rhetoric. It is this distinction between media noise and strategic substance that should guide our reading of this episode.

Rutte and his European counterparts have so far shown a remarkable ability to absorb Trump's verbal provocations without ever compromising the Alliance's fundamental unity against Russia. What remains to be seen is whether this diplomatic resilience will survive a second Trump term marked by ever more pressing demands on his transatlantic partners.

### The West facing its own contradictions

What is at stake in Ankara goes far beyond the budget question alone: it is a test of the West's ability to maintain strategic unity against adversaries — Russia, China, Iran, North Korea — who are coordinating their efforts ever more closely. Every public crack in transatlantic unity, even when driven by legitimate arguments, is a strategic gift handed to our common adversaries.

History may remember Ankara not for the inflammatory tweets that preceded it, but for the Alliance's ability to turn legitimate pressure into lasting structural reform, without ever breaking the bond of trust that has united the two shores of the Atlantic for 77 years.

*I close this column with a conviction and an admitted doubt. The conviction: the West has more to gain than to lose from this Trumpian pressure, however scorching it feels in the moment. The doubt: no one, not even Rutte, can guarantee that European patience with repeated provocations will last indefinitely.*

**By Maxime Marquette, columnist**

## Columnist's transparency note

### Editorial stance

I am not a journalist but a **columnist and analyst**. My expertise lies in observing and analysing the geopolitical, economic and strategic dynamics that shape our world. My work is to take political strategies apart, to understand global economic movements, to put the decisions of international actors in context and to offer analytical perspectives on the changes that are redefining our societies.

I do not claim the cold objectivity of traditional journalism, which stops at reporting facts. **I claim analytical clarity**, rigorous interpretation and a deep understanding of the complex issues that concern us all. My role is to give meaning to the facts, to place them in their historical and strategic context, and to offer a critical reading of events.

### Method and sources

This text keeps the basic distinction between **verified facts and interpretive analysis**. The rule never changes: a factual claim is published only when a verifiable source supports it, and the sources this article actually used are listed under **Sources**, never here.

**Primary source families** used by the publication, when the story has them: official statements from governments and international institutions, public statements by political leaders, reports from intergovernmental organisations, dispatches from recognised international news agencies.

**Secondary source families**: specialised publications, internationally recognised news media, analyses from established research institutions, reports from industry organisations.

When an article cites statistical, economic or geopolitical data, it comes from the institutions that produce it (intergovernmental organisations, central banks, national statistics offices), and the exact institution is named under **Sources**.

### Nature of the analysis

The analyses, interpretations and perspectives in the analytical sections of this article are a **critical, contextual synthesis** based on the information available, the trends observed and the expert comments cited in the sources consulted.

My role is to interpret these facts, to set them in the context of today's geopolitical and economic dynamics, and to give them a coherent meaning within the larger story of the changes shaping our time. These analyses reflect expertise built through continuous observation of international affairs and an understanding of the strategic mechanisms that drive global actors.

This article describes a documented state of affairs on its publication date, not a prediction: later developments may shift its outlook. No update is promised in advance; when an article is corrected or completed, the change is dated in the text.

## Sources

### Primary sources

- The Guardian — Trump calls current U.S. support for NATO "ridiculous," July 3, 2026

- The Star / Reuters — NATO leaders to affirm "ironclad commitment" in Ankara, July 3, 2026

### Secondary sources

- Reuters — NATO leaders gather in Ankara aiming to smooth over tensions with Trump, July 3, 2026

- Euronews — NATO to reaffirm ironclad commitment to Article 5 at Ankara summit, July 3, 2026

- NATO — Defence ministers make good progress ahead of the Ankara summit, June 18, 2026

- Fox News — Trump calls out NATO ahead of summit, calling the relationship "ridiculous"

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Source: Maxime Marquette, MadMax. When citing, name the author and link https://mad-max.co/en/article/trump-qualifie-l-otan-de-ridicule-a-quelques-jours-du-sommet-d-ankara