NATO’s summit of love that wasn’t

There was a time when an elderly president’s behavior in public set off alarm bells in his own party and across the country, leading him to drop out of his reelection campaign. Joe Biden, returning from an arduous overseas trip, appeared in a presidential debate against Donald Trump in June 2024 obviously debilitated and, weeks later, he was forced to leave the race. But Biden was a Democrat, a member of a party that expects their leader to be basically functional. After Trump’s recent performance at the NATO summit, it is clearer than ever that Republicans have no such concerns.

The president flew into Ankara, Turkey, on the new Air Force One, the fancy gift he requested from Qatar, obviously cranky and out of sorts — even after President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan greeted him like a visiting potentate, showing off a new building bearing Trump’s name. (You can’t go wrong splashing the president’s name on buildings. It’s his favorite thing. And Trump loves a dictator who treats him like a king.)

The president’s bad mood was attributed to the fact that Iran was refusing to cooperate with his demands to do what he tells them or be annihilated. In other words, he was dealing with a country just as bellicose and irrational as he is, and it had him in a funk. The administration’s diplomatic talks were going badly, and Iran had just violated the ceasefire, causing him to once again look like a fool for insisting that a lasting peace deal was imminent. The war he was desperate to end — and add to his illusory list of peace deals — was starting up again. 

At the joint press conference with Erdogan before the official NATO meeting, Trump made it clear that he was also unhappy with Israel, probably because he knows he has realized he was played by Benjamin Netanyahu, who cajoled him into attacking Iran against the advice of virtually everyone. The Israeli prime minister was begging him not to sell F-35 aircraft to Turkey, which they consider a serious adversary, but Trump announced at the press conference that he was considering the move, as well as lifting sanctions on the authoritarian regime, which elicited a thrilled response from Erdogan and his entourage. It appeared to be Trump’s way of telling Netanyahu, “You’re not the boss of me.” 

Trump also railed against NATO itself, the organization he abhors for failing to behave like the colonists he thinks they are. He again demanded that the U.S. be allowed to seize Greenland, and according to CNN’s public fact-checker Daniel Dale, Trump once again incorrectly claimed the island nation is “surrounded by Chinese and Russian ships,” requiring American protection. As Greenland is part of Denmark, it is already protected by the U.S., Canada and Europe, but as Trump told the New York  Times earlier this year, it’s important for him “psychologically” to actually own the country because he believes “ownership gives you a thing that you can’t do, whether you’re talking about a lease or a treaty.” 

That comment alone should give pause to any ally counting on a treaty with the U.S. guaranteeing their protection.

Trump ranted about Biden allegedly giving away billions to Ukraine for no reason, and he rambled on about the 2020 presidential election, insisting as usual that it was rigged and he actually won it in a landslide. (The psychic wound of that loss still festers and bubbles like a gangrenous limb, threatening to kill our democracy.)

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The Europeans had been expecting this. The last NATO meeting, in 2025, was a disaster. It came on the heels of what had appeared to be very serious threats from Trump to take Greenland militarily, causing the Europeans to send small contingents of troops to the country, a largely symbolic move intended to signal to Trump that the cost of such an operation would be higher than he intended. 

He backed away from that threat, but his pique at NATO for not following his more recent orders to join the Iran campaign still had him fuming, and he was engaged in a public spat with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, calling her a “stalker” on Truth Social. (Angry that his erstwhile closest ally among the Europeans had refused Italian airfields for the strikes on Iran, Trump claimed she had begged him for a picture at the G7 in June, a charge she vehemently denied.) 

In an appearance with NATO Secretary-General (and so-called Trump whisperer) Mark Rutte, the president was still in a foul mood, petulantly attacking Spain. There are “bad people” there, he said, adding that he didn’t want to do any trade with the country or have any “visits,” apparently because its president, like Meloni, had denied the American military access to its airfields to assist with Iran operations. Nonetheless, Rutte dutifully extolled Trump for his alleged great leadership and told him to “take the win” for having forced Europe to shoulder more of the burden for self-defense, but the president did not seem appeased. 

Then something happened. Trump met with all the NATO leaders behind closed doors and emerged a changed man. He proclaimed “there was a lot of love in that room,” later telling the press, “They said, ‘We love you, sir, we love you.’ These are grown people saying that. Isn’t that nice? Maybe, I don’t know, maybe they’re trying to get to me, and in a way they did, because there was tremendous unity in that room.” 

Apparently, all he needed was a big, giant group hug. 

It worked. In a shocking turnaround, Trump met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, treating him with respect and something approaching affection, even promising to look into licensing to the country the ability to build their own Patriot missiles, which are desperately needed. 

Maybe it was from all the love bombing, but Trump also seemed confused. He talked about “the Islamic Republic of Japan” and repeatedly referred to Zelenskyy as “President Putin.”

Trump ended the NATO summit by dubbing it a tremendous success, and it did end better than most. But the wild mood swings and confusion must have increased already existing concerns among the organization’s members about his state of mind. It’s possible Trump was just tired and cranky. He rarely sleeps anyway, and jet lag can certainly take a toll on an 80-year-old. 

But it’s also possible that Trump had just been informed that Iran had threatened his life again and he would not be able to fly his fancy 747 out of Turkish airspace because it lacked the required defensive capability. (As a security precaution, he left on the old Air Force One.) Maybe having some allies in that moment soothed him. 

Whatever caused the transformation, his erratic behavior on the world stage once again illustrated the double standard applied to him and his predecessor. Joe Biden looked old, and he turned in a debate performance so shocking that he had to step aside. Now, with two-and-a-half years left in his presidency, there are serious questions about Trump’s health, and no one around him will even admit it’s happening. 

Meanwhile, he is starting wars, colonizing countries, obsessing over the decor in the White House and spending massive sums building monuments to himself. His Truth Social posts are often bizarre exercises in navel-gazing, and it’s clear he isn’t getting enough sleep. It doesn’t seem sustainable to run a global superpower this way. 

I hear the Islamic Republic of Japan has an aging population. Perhaps they have some ideas about how to deal with this?