Donald Trump has taken advantage of his arrival at the NATO summit in Ankara to redouble his criticism of European allies. The president of the United States has been “very disappointed” with the Alliance for not supporting the US military offensive against Iran and has once again defended that Greenland should be under Washington’s control.
As soon as he landed in the Turkish capital, Trump assured that NATO countries “did not treat the United States well” during the operation against Iran. As he explained, he expected greater support from allies that Washington has protected for decades. “You would think that they would be very willing to do something to help us. And they really weren’t,” he said.
The president has also hinted that this lack of support could have consequences. Asked about a possible withdrawal of more US troops from Europe, he did not rule it out and simply responded: “We’ll see.”
Trump has also linked his presence at the summit to the figure of the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. He has assured that, if the meeting had not been held in Türkiye and without the invitation of “a very strong leader” like Erdogan, he probably would not have attended.
In his appearance he also attacked the Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, considering that she made a mistake by not allowing the use of Italian bases for bombing Iran, a decision that, as he acknowledged, has deteriorated their relationship.
Furthermore, the American president has recovered one of his most controversial claims by insisting that Greenland “should be controlled by the United States, not Denmark”, thus reiterating an aspiration that he had already defended during previous terms.
