The Latest: President Trump pleases Turkey, irks other allies ahead of NATO summit
U.S. President Donald Trump has met with Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdoğan ahead of the NATO summit in Ankara, announcing that the U.S. will lift sanctions, opening the possibility of selling F-35 jets to Turkey over Israel's objections.
Trump also criticized NATO’s abilities to function without American leadership and power, expressing disappointment at the refusal of some NATO allies to join the Iran war he launched alongside Israel without consulting them. And he insisted again that Greenland should be “controlled by the United States, not by Denmark.” Of all of his threats to NATO and its member countries, this has posed the greatest danger to the organization.
Alliance leaders meanwhile are trying to show increased military capabilities as the American focus shifts from defending Europe. The two-day summit will showcase military projects worth billions of dollars aimed at persuading Trump they’re making a stronger Europe for a stronger NATO.
The Latest:
Thousands of protestors from leftist, pro-Palestinian and Kurdish parties in central Istanbul marched against the NATO summit being held in Ankara Tuesday, chanting, “Murderer, USA, get out of our country.”
“We are here to protest the hosting in Ankara — at a cost of millions of dollars — of NATO, an organization we regard as a massacre machine established to preserve global hegemony,” said Ali Gültekin, 21.
Günçağ Aydın, 42, a spokesperson for the leftist Red Party, said that leftist groups faced intense pressure from the government ahead of the summit.
“Hundreds of our friends have been detained, but we continue to speak out, saying that NATO is a coalition of what we regard as killers and imperialist powers,” Aydın insists.
The protest ended peacefully and without arrests. Earlier Tuesday, police broke up a small demonstration in Ankara, where protests were banned during the NATO summit, and arrested about 20 people.
The White House shared details of the menu for the dinner, which had a first course of flatbread and a honeycomb. It was followed by vegetables and yogurt, traditional dumplings and a choice of sea bass or beef.
Dessert was Baklava with milk, a pistachio foam and traditional Turkish Maras ice cream.Trump arrives at NATO leaders’ dinner
Trump has returned to the Turkish presidential compound for a dinner for leaders of NATO members.
Trump gave a thumbs-up as he walked the blue carpet past a military honor guard to meet Erdogan and his wife who waited at the top of some stairs for him.
Trump shook their hands and spoke to them for a few minutes before posing for a photograph.
He then continued speaking to Erdogan for a moment more before they went inside together.
The trilateral cooperation agreement was agreed to by Secretary Marco Rubio and his Korean and Japanese counterparts on the margins of the summit to “advance our mutual security interests and paves the way for partner countries to meet their energy security needs,” the U.S. State Department announced in a press release Tuesday.
The memorandum of understanding between the three countries is aimed at accelerating deployment of advanced nuclear reactors in other countries, initially focusing on the Indo-Pacific region.
The release said the U.S. is also committing more than $10 million in new funding for a State Department program aimed at providing technical support to relevant countries.
NATO leaders are arriving at the Turkish presidential compound for a dinner hosted by Erdogan.
The leaders are walking along a turquoise‑colored carpet lined with soldiers dressed in historic military garments, before ascending steps where they are greeted by Erdogan and his wife, Emine.
Slovenia, Belgium, Spain and the Czech Republic could be in hot water with the Trump administration after new NATO defense spending figures showed they’re struggling to meet the organization’s old target.
NATO leaders agreed last year to invest 5% of GDP on defense by 2035 — 3.5% on core defense requirements and 1.5% on upgrading security related infrastructure like roads, bridges, ports and airports.
The Trump administration is expecting a “first report card” to be handed in by European allies and Canada to demonstrate progress. It’s threatened to take unspecified action against those lacking a solid plan to make the grade.
Some are still struggling to meet NATO’s old target of 2% of GDP. Slovenia is expected to fall short, with just 1.6%. Belgium, Spain and the Czech Republic are forecast to barely make 2%.
Rahm Emanuel’s remarks could prompt a similarly fiery response from Benjamin Netanyahu, who famously once called the Democrat who had ambitions of being the first Jewish speaker of the U.S. House a “self-hating Jew.”
The prime minister faces his own battle for reelection in October, and may try to use a confrontation with Emanuel for political gain by appearing to stand strong in the face of international criticism.
As for Democrats, Emanuel’s speed represents a particularly frontal strategy for possible presidential contenders gauging how to address the fallout from Israel’s war in Gaza and Netanyahu’s perceived tilt toward Trump ’s Republican Party.
Rahm Emanuel told The Associated Press in an interview from Tel Aviv ahead of his speech on Wednesday that he’s avoiding interactions with elected officials so as to not interfere with upcoming elections. Instead he’s visiting a hospital serving Israelis and Palestinians and meeting with the family of an Oct. 7 hostage.
Emanuel said Israel’s continued military response to the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023, has been “reckless and careless in the treatment of Palestinian life — not only the military campaign but using food and medicine as an instrument of your military goals.”
Asked whether Israel had committed genocide, the stalwart of Democratic centrists said the question should not be considered in isolation without also examining conflicts in Ukraine and Sudan.
“I’m ready to have that discussion,” he said, “but I don’t think it should be politicized, and then dilute the power of what genocide means.”
Article 5 is at the heart of the 32-member North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It states that an armed attack against one or more of the members shall be considered an attack against all members.
That security guarantee is the reason previously neutral Finland and Sweden sought to join NATO and why Ukraine and other countries in Europe also want in. It has only been invoked once, in the wake of the Sept.11, 2001, terror attacks on the United States.
Ozgur Ozel said Trump would be the only visiting U.S. president not to pay his respects at the mausoleum of Turkey’s founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.
He said every visiting U.S. president since Eisenhower in 1959 had gone to the monument to honor Ataturk, who remains a revered figure in Turkey.
Talking about Trump’s welcome, Ozel said the president should be greeted by children “holding pictures of the 165 girls killed in Iran” – a reference to an airstrike on a school at the start of the Iran war.
Ozel was removed as head of the Republican People’s Party by court order last May. However, many believe the ruling was politically motivated and still consider him the de facto opposition leader.
Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden did not visit Turkey but he did lay a wreath at Ataturk’s tomb as vice-president in 2011.
The explosions in Syria’s capital on Tuesday injured at least 18 people, the interior ministry said, as France’s president met with his counterpart in a landmark visit. Both leaders later announced the reappointment of ambassadors, marking a major restoration of diplomatic ties after years of civil war.
It was the second attack in Damascus in a week and a setback for President Ahmad al-Sharaa as he welcomed the first major Western leader to visit since the ouster of longtime dictator Bashar Assad in late 2024. But French President Emmanuel Macron was safe in the presidential palace when the explosions happened, and voiced support for the country’s new direction.
“Nothing can smother the aspiration of Syrian women and men to live in a fully sovereign, safe, pluralistic, and united Syria,” Macron said on X hours later. Both he and Al-Sharaa will next appear in Ankara, Turkey for the NATO summit.
The British military now says three tankers were struck Tuesday in the Strait of Hormuz. The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said a third ship was hit by a drone in the critical oil-shipping waterway, where two other tankers had been attacked earlier in the day.
The third ship sustained minor damage, with no one injured, and continued on its way, the UKMTO said.
Iran and the United States agreed as part of an interim deal to allow ships to pass without paying charges for 60 days. But Tehran insisted it must control the routes and later charge fees, which would upend decades of practice in the waterway.
The U.S. and many Gulf Arab states say they will not agree to Iran charging for passage through the strait. An effort by Oman and a United Nations agency to launch a new route near Oman’s shore earlier sparked attacks across the Mideast.
Air defenses are on alert, and tens of thousands of police will be on duty.
Neighborhoods around the summit site are closed to traffic, and some state workers have been given time off to help keep roads unclogged.
Public gatherings are banned; however, Turkish police detained more than 20 protestors at a demonstration in central Ankara against the NATO summit on Tuesday.
Erdogan’s government has prioritized security, and authorities have carried out raids on people allegedly linked to extremist groups ahead of the summit.
Trump said on Tuesday that the U.S. will lift sanctions on Turkey that were issued after Ankara purchased a Russian missile defense system that led to the country being kicked out of the F-35 fighter jet program.
There are still a number of legal hurdles before Turkey could be fully admitted back to the U.S. program, but the removal of the sanctions — issued under the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act — would help ease the process for Ankara to regain access to the F-35s, a top goal of Erdogan.
“We’re going to be taking the sanctions off, OK?” Trump said in response to a question at the presidential palace in Ankara. He said Cabinet officials were working on the matter.
Earlier, he said that the possibility of selling the F-35s to Turkey is “certainly something we will consider.”
Erdogan expressed hope that the U.S. will sell F-35 planes to Turkey, saying the U.S. president always stands by his word.
At a joint news conference with Trump, Erdogan also said the two leaders would take up the issue of the sale of jet engines to power Turkey’s domestically-produced KAAN fighter planes.
He said Turkey expects Trump to “repeat the positive news” he previously gave about supporting Turkey’s defense projects.
Trump says the semiautonomous island, which is part of NATO ally Denmark, is “an important part for the United States,” and that he does not intend to let Greenland be threatened by China and Russia. He repeated the false claim that it’s surrounded by Chinese and Russian ships.
“That should be controlled by the United States, not by Denmark,” Trump told reporters during a meeting with Erdogan.
Of all Trump’s threats to NATO and its member countries, Trump’s repeated insistence that the U.S. should acquire Greenland has posed the greatest danger to the organization. NATO is founded on the principle that its 32 members will defend each other’s territory and not threaten to seize it.
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center made the announcement Tuesday, hours after it said a tanker traveling off the coast of Oman in the strait was struck by a projectile and caught fire.
Iranian state television reported on the earlier attack, saying the liquefied natural gas tanker came under attack after ignoring warnings, while not directly claiming responsibility. Tehran has repeatedly declared that only its approved route through the strait is safe, and is suspected of attacking other ships that have tried to transit the strait close to the Omani shore.
Talks between Iran and the U.S. appeared to be on hold until after the burial of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed during the initial attacks by the U.S. and Israel that launched the war. Iranian mourners have called for the death of Trump.
A senior NATO official speaking on the sidelines of the summit in Ankara Tuesday said that despite some “reckless” actions by Russia, including airspace violations over Poland, Romania and Estonia, he believes the alliance has been successful in deterring Russia from any potential attack on a member country.
“I see absolutely no indications whatsoever that Russia is interested in any sort of conflict with NATO,” the official said.
He said Moscow is overstretched by its war in Ukraine and knows NATO would respond to any attack on a member.
“I would say now that Russia is deterred, but Russia is deterred because of the actions that we are taking,” he said.
While Trump is in Turkey demanding loyalty from NATO allies, a leading Democrat will be in Tel Aviv, directly accusing the president’s military partner of driving Israel into a “dead end.”
Potential presidential candidate Rahm Emanuel plans to denounce Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and call for an end to U.S. subsidies of Israel’s defense budget in a speech Wednesday at Tel Aviv University.
“You’ve lost Europe,” Emanuel will say, according to remarks obtained by The Associated Press. Castigating Netanyahu for doing little to end the Iran war, he’ll note that “support for Israel is plummeting around the world.”
About 58% of Democrats now say the U.S. is “too supportive” of Israel, according to a new survey by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, up from 45% in January 2024. Roughly half of Democrats believe Israel’s government has committed genocide against Palestinians during the war in Gaza, an accusation leveled by some human rights organizations and vehemently denied by Israel and the U.S. government.
The U.S. leader was asked about his meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskyy scheduled for Wednesday on the sidelines of the NATO summit, and responded by saying he’s had great recent phone conversations with both the Ukrainian president and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“They both want to get it settled now,” he said.
He added later that Erdogan is “helping us get it settled.”
At his bilateral meeting with Erdogan, Trump said he was testing European allies when he asked for their help with the Iran war.
“Italy turned us down and Germany turned us down and France turned us down,” Trump said. “And that’s OK. But, you know, why are we spending hundreds of billions of dollars and they’re not there for us?”
The complaint has been a central point of conflict between Trump and NATO, which he has described as a “paper tiger."
As they sat down for a bilateral meeting, Trump showered praise on Erdogan, saying they have a “very special relationship” that benefits both countries.
Asked about what makes their relationship so strong, Trump said there’s “a chemistry that works between us.”
“Sometimes you get along with the toughest people, like him,” Trump said, gesturing to Erdogan. “Sometimes you don’t get along with the weakest, most pathetic people.”
The president was asked by a reporter as he met with Erdogan whether he’ll allow the sale of the American fighter jets to Turkey, which had been banned from the program after purchasing Russian missile defense systems.
“It’s certainly something we will consider,” Trump said as he sat with his Turkish counterpart.
He said that “Turkey has been in many ways much more loyal than other countries.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has publicly urged the U.S. not to sell the jets to Turkey, saying it would upset the balance of power in the Middle East.
FIFA has defended the reputation of World Cup referee Raphael Claus in rare pushback on comments by Trump, who questioned his integrity for sending off Folarin Balogun.
Trump suggested on Monday at the White House, without elaborating, that the 46-year-old Brazilian referee was “a little bit suspect if you check his past.”
Trump set off a furor by successfully intervening with FIFA to ensure the United States forward could play against Belgium despite his red-card penalty. FIFA praised Claus, now working at his second World Cup, in a statement published before the U.S. lost 4-1 Monday night.
“Throughout his career, he has consistently demonstrated the highest standards of professionalism and integrity,” FIFA said, calling Claus “one of the world’s leading professional referees and a valued member” of its team of World Cup match officials.
Zelenskyy made a fresh appeal for Ukraine to be allowed to join NATO, saying that his country’s armed forces are highly experienced and resilient would only boost the alliance’s defense capabilities.
“Ukraine belongs in NATO,” Zelenskyy said at a defense industry forum, near where NATO leaders were due to gather later on Tuesday.
Zelenskyy highlighted Ukraine’s adaptability and its ability to strike deep inside Russia, hit oil refineries and other energy targets. He said that Ukraine’s armed forces are “eliminating” on average 30,000 Russian troops every month.
“Do you believe it would be right to live outside NATO, a country and a people with this level of defense capability?” he said.
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