{"id":883,"date":"2026-07-06T09:09:55","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T09:09:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/modernhomejournals.com\/?p=883"},"modified":"2026-07-06T09:09:55","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T09:09:55","slug":"5-things-to-watch-as-trump-heads-to-the-nato-summit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/modernhomejournals.com\/?p=883","title":{"rendered":"5 Things To Watch as Trump Heads to the NATO Summit"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div>\n<p>NATO leaders from all 32 member states will gather in Ankara, Turkey, on Tuesday and Wednesday under a cloud of uncertainty: Will Europe\u2019s surge in defense spending be enough to satisfy President Donald Trump and shore up confidence in America\u2019s commitment to the alliance?<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/modernhomejournals.com\/?p=881\">Trump Asked FIFA to Review U.S. Player\u2019s Suspension Before it Was Reversed<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Europeans are seeing an America that is collaborative, ambiguous and hostile, all at the same time,\u201d said Constanze Stelzenm\u00fcller, the director of the Center on the United States and Europe at the Brookings Institution.<\/p>\n<p>Here are five things to watch for as the summit gets underway.<\/p>\n<h2>Trump Card<\/h2>\n<div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Allies will aim to show unity and avoid drama. But Trump could set off fireworks if he harps on his ambitions to <span><u>acquire Greenland<\/u><\/span>, blasts allies for failing to back U.S. military action against Iran or stokes his <span><u>feud<\/u><\/span> with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.<\/p>\n<p>NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte probably won\u2019t call Trump \u201c<span><u>daddy<\/u><\/span>\u201d again, but he is likely to flatter the president with credit for a <span><u>major boost in allies\u2019 spending<\/u><\/span>. NATO countries have pledged to spend 5% of their gross domestic product on defense and have collectively spent roughly $1 trillion on defense over the past decade.<\/p>\n<p>The White House signaled that the honeymoon is over when it comes to last year\u2019s spending pledge. Ambassador to NATO Matt Whitaker, in a call with reporters Sunday, pointed to Poland, Nordic countries and Germany for making progress but said that \u201cmany others are lagging behind\u201d and that Trump expects every ally to \u201cstep up immediately\u201d and reach the target.<\/p>\n<p>Trump leaves Washington on Monday and arrives in Ankara on Tuesday for two days of diplomacy and a planned press conference Wednesday before returning home.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTurkey may be rocky,\u201d Matthew Kroenig, of the Atlantic Council think tank, said of the summit. \u201cI heard one senior official say that the European allies are arrogant, that they made this big 5% defense spending pledge, and they think they\u2019re done, but they\u2019re not following through.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>Open Arms<\/h2>\n<p>Europe, which is spending more because it fears America might pull some troops and high-end equipment from the continent, is trying to convert those euros into hard steel.<\/p>\n<p>Trump administration officials said they expect new procurement frameworks and defense-industrial partnerships to be among the summit\u2019s biggest tangible deliverables.<\/p>\n<p>Countries in Europe are striving to establish a self-reliant defense industry to manufacture the weapons they need to stand up to Moscow \u2014 but they can\u2019t ramp up as fast or as fully as they need to without American support. At the same time, Washington has frustrated its allies by holding back deliveries of weapons so the Pentagon can refill stockpiles drained by the Iran war.<\/p>\n<p>Allies will try to square the circle at a daylong defense industry forum Tuesday, which is expected to showcase tens of billions of dollars in contracts and new co-production agreements with the United States. Germany\u2019s <span><u>push to make more American weapons on German soil<\/u><\/span>, if successful, could produce one of Ankara\u2019s bigger announcements.<\/p>\n<h2>Kyiv Confidence<\/h2>\n<div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is expected to project strength in Ankara after unleashing a wave of deep-strike drone attacks inside Russia designed to make the war economically and politically unsustainable for President Vladimir Putin.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/modernhomejournals.com\/?p=879\">Trump Gets His July Fourth Rally After a Weather Delay<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Trump, after <span><u>a call Saturday with Putin<\/u><\/span>, is expected to meet Wednesday with Zelenskyy in his ongoing effort to end the war, officials said.<\/p>\n<p>Zelenskyy, meanwhile, despite some recent praise from Trump, will be less focused on the U.S. as he looks for help. (He recently called for a joint European project to build anti-ballistic missile systems.) The Trump administration\u2019s pause on weapons deliveries to Ukraine and <span><u>foot-dragging<\/u><\/span> on spending $400 million in Ukraine aid mean the taps are nearly off in Washington, and Zelenskyy knows it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis will be the first summit or such meeting where Zelenskyy isn\u2019t just desperately thinking, \u2018How do I get the U.S. on board,\u2019 but \u2018How do I continue to take advantage of the things that are going well,\u2019 given the reality that the U.S. isn\u2019t going to do more,\u201d said Phil Gordon, a Brookings Institution scholar and former senior Biden administration official.<\/p>\n<h2>Mixed Signals<\/h2>\n<div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The Pentagon canceled an armored brigade deployment to Poland and discussed pulling thousands of troops from Germany in <span><u>recent months<\/u><\/span>, only for Trump to later announce a <span><u>new commitment<\/u><\/span> of 5,000 troops for Poland without disclosing any details.<\/p>\n<p>Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced in mid-June a six-month <span><u>review of U.S. force posture<\/u><\/span> and military bases in Europe \u2014 part of the administration\u2019s push to get allies to take more responsibility.<\/p>\n<p>To boot, the Trump administration reportedly plans to reduce by roughly one-third the number of fighter jets it assigns to NATO, halve its strategic bomber commitment and withdraw an aircraft carrier, a cruise missile-capable submarine and other high-end assets from the pool of forces earmarked for the alliance in a crisis.<\/p>\n<p>Ian Brzezinski, a former Pentagon official now at the Atlantic Council, said the administration seems to be reversing longstanding U.S. policy of keeping forces overseas to deter conflicts before they threaten American shores: \u201cThat\u2019s probably the main driver behind this series of force reductions, the salami slices we\u2019ve seen over the last year,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<h2>Talking Turkey<\/h2>\n<p>Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan, a longtime Trump ally, are set to meet, potentially opening the door to a U.S. sale of F-35 fighters after Washington greenlit the sale of F-110 aircraft engines last month.<\/p>\n<p>Any move to bring Turkey back into the program would send shockwaves through Capitol Hill, where lawmakers are uneasy with Erdo\u011fan and U.S. law requires sanctions over Ankara\u2019s purchase of Russia\u2019s S-400 air defense system.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s a matter of law,\u201d Rep. Brian Mast (R-Florida), the House Foreign Affairs chair and a Trump ally, told NOTUS. \u201cTurkey is problematic on a number of fronts. Their actions in Syria and other places are much bigger pieces of the conversation that need to be addressed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/modernhomejournals.com\/?p=877\">Mallory McMorrow Drops Out of Michigan\u2019s Senate Primary Race<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The president remains the central character as all 32 members of the alliance gather in Turkey.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":882,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-foreign-policy"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>5 Things To Watch as Trump Heads to the NATO Summit - Modern Home Journals<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/modernhomejournals.com\/?p=883\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"5 Things To Watch as Trump Heads to the NATO Summit - Modern Home Journals\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The president remains the central character as all 32 members of the alliance gather in Turkey.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/modernhomejournals.com\/?p=883\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Modern Home Journals\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-07-06T09:09:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=883#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=883\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/533de239efc09a2ab59959cc1bff86d0\"},\"headline\":\"5 Things To Watch as Trump Heads to the NATO Summit\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-06T09:09:55+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=883\"},\"wordCount\":1050,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=883#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/c0cea948d99ab1ef020ef04641bdafca-scaled.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Foreign Policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=883#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=883\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=883\",\"name\":\"5 Things To Watch as Trump Heads to the NATO Summit - Modern Home Journals\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=883#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=883#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/c0cea948d99ab1ef020ef04641bdafca-scaled.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-06T09:09:55+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/533de239efc09a2ab59959cc1bff86d0\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=883#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=883\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=883#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/c0cea948d99ab1ef020ef04641bdafca-scaled.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/c0cea948d99ab1ef020ef04641bdafca-scaled.jpg\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":1707,\"caption\":\"President Donald Trump, right, meets with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte during a meeting on the sidelines of the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2026. 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