‘I’m not happy with NATO’: Trump expresses frustration with alliance at Turkey summit

Supervising Producer

WASHINGTON —

NATO leaders are meeting in Turkey to discuss pressing issues, including increased military spending and the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war.

A major focus of the summit is the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. President Donald Trump is scheduled to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday.

Zelenskyy is expected to draw attention to Ukraine’s need for more U.S.-made missiles following a wave of deadly Russian attacks on Monday. These attacks highlight Kyiv’s ongoing struggle and the potential threat to NATO countries in Europe if the Kremlin’s attacks go beyond Ukraine.

Ahead of the main meeting of NATO leaders, President Trump voiced frustrations about NATO contributions, renewing long-held complaints that the U.S. is not receiving enough in return and that NATO should have been more involved in the Iran War.

“I’m not happy with NATO because of the fact that they didn’t want to help us with the number one state sponsor of terror. That’s Iran. They were unwilling to help us,” Trump said. “When we wanted them, we didn’t want them badly, but we did say, ‘If you want to join us,’ and they all said ‘no.'”

Rutte pushed back on Trump’s claims, calling them “isolated cases,” highlighting that 5,000 planes took off from European airports in support of the war.

“It was Europe as one, big platform of power projection for the United States helping with Epic Fury,” Rutte said.

At last year’s summit, NATO members agreed to invest 5% of their gross domestic product on defense by 2035. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has called for members to present a clear and concrete plan this year to meet the alliance’s military spending targets.

New figures released by NATO on Tuesday show that several countries, including Slovenia, Belgium, and Spain, have struggled to meet the previous target of investing 2% of their economic output on defense, which could lead to further tensions with the Trump administration.

The United States spends about 3.3% of its GDP on the military. Several NATO members exceed that level. The U.S. has said it does not intend to meet the 5% spending level. However, the U.S. has a larger economy and therefore a higher dollar amount.

Last year the U.S. spent about $1 trillion on defense. The Trump administration is calling for $1.5 trillion in FY 2027, bringing its percentage of GDP spending on the military to 3.8%.

In addition to these complaints, the president also renewed calls at this conference for the U.S. to own Greenland for security reasons. Denmark, the NATO ally that owns Greenland, continues to refuse entertaining the proposal.

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