Trump demands 'loyalty' from NATO as chief struggles to keep US anchored to alliance

WASHINGTON, DC: President Donald Trump demanded “loyalty” from NATO allies after faulting them for not joining the war against Iran he launched alongside Israel without consulting them.

The demand raises the stakes for NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte ahead of this week’s summit in Turkey. His long-running effort to keep the US anchored to the alliance now faces a new strain.

Trump tells NATO allies he just wants loyalty

As per the PBS report on Sunday, July 5, Trump has long pressured NATO members to spend more on defense, “but allies addressed that dispute at last year’s summit by committing to invest as much as the US in gross domestic product terms.”

Rutte tried to reinforce that progress during a White House meeting last month with a chart labeled “The Trump Trillion” in gold letters. It showed “$1.2 trillion in spending by European allies and Canada since 2017,” the report said.

Trump appeared unmoved, focusing instead on allies that refused to join the Iran war.

“We don’t need their money — we don’t need anything,” Trump said. “I just want loyalty.”

Trump also suggested he might have skipped the upcoming summit entirely if Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan were not hosting it, leaving Erdogan and Rutte with the challenge of keeping the gathering on track.

Rutte turns to flattery to keep Trump engaged

Since becoming NATO secretary-general almost two years ago, Rutte has spent much of his time trying to keep the US inside the 32-member alliance as Trump repeatedly questioned America’s commitments, the report stated.

“His approach has leaned heavily on flattery. During last month’s Oval Office pitch, Rutte used charts showing tens of thousands of US jobs and a $300 billion backlog in European orders for military equipment,” it said.

He credited those gains to Trump, calling him the “leader of the free world.”

But Rutte also gently pushed back on Trump’s complaint that NATO failed to support the US against Iran. He noted that up to 5,000 US planes took off from bases in Europe before an April ceasefire.

The tension comes as NATO remains dependent on its largest and most powerful member. Last month, the Pentagon surprised allies by announcing it was scaling back the troops, warships, aircraft, and drones it would provide if a member came under attack.

Trump has also sent conflicting messages about whether US troop numbers in Europe would fall or rise.

NATO summit faces a tougher Trump demand

Rutte’s strategy appeared to work at last year’s summit in The Hague, where allies backed a major defense spending pledge, and Trump left praising his NATO partners as a “nice group of people.”

This year’s summit presents a different test.

Rutte has tried to persuade Trump that increased European spending would allow the US to focus on security challenges posed by China while European allies handle the war in Ukraine.

“But Trump’s new demand is no longer centered only on defense budgets,” the report stated.

The stakes echo a warning from Rutte’s predecessor, Jens Stoltenberg, who recalled chairing a 2018 summit that Trump nearly upended, it added.

“If an American president says he no longer wishes to defend the other allies and leaves a NATO summit in protest, then the NATO treaty and its security guarantee aren’t worth very much,” Stoltenberg wrote.