ANKARA, Turkey — President Trump blasted his fellow NATO leaders Tuesday ahead of the alliance’s annual summit — after receiving an over-the-top reception from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who welcomed Trump on the tarmac before offering his motorcade a horseback escort through the Turkish capital.
“I was very disappointed with NATO, and frankly if [the summit] weren’t held in Turkey, where my friend happens to be a very strong leader… it’s possible that I wouldn’t have attended,” Trump told reporters after arriving inside Erdoğan’s presidential compound.
Trump lavished praise on his host and scorn on prominent European members of the alliance, after Turkish calvary riders — two brandishing American and Turkish flags — trotted alongside the Beast following Trump’s arrival in Ankara aboard the new Air Force One.
The president even uttered a rare foreign-language greeting to the honor guard — translated to “hello, soldiers” — before passing costumed re-enactors showing off weapons and uniforms from Turkey’s long history.
Erdoğan, who grabbed Trump’s arm as he escorted him across an aqua-blue carpet rolled out for the occasion, basked in his closeness to the US president as he tries to close resumed sales of F-35 jets and enhanced status as a close American ally in the region.
Trump praised Turkey for assisting with the Iran conflict while condemning the leaders of the UK, Italy, Germany and France for refusing base access to attack Iran and balking at helping reopen the Strait of Hormuz, saying “we weren’t treated well.”
“We didn’t need any help at all and in a way I was testing people. I was testing to see whether or not they’d be there,” the president added three months after threatening to withdraw from the military alliance.
“Italy turned us down, and Germany turned us down, and France turned us down. And that’s OK. But why are we spending hundreds of billions of dollars and they’re not there for us? We’ve always been there for them.”
It’s unclear how much Trump’s bitterness over the snubs will bear on the NATO summit, where US officials say the president plans to prioritize boosting European defense spending, including making a 5%-of-GDP spending pledge unveiled last year mandatory.
While taking reporter questions, Trump reignited another point of contention by repeating his demand that the US acquire Greenland from Denmark — before suggesting that “we could remove all our soldiers out of Europe.”
“Well, that’s what hurt my relationship with NATO,” the president said of the controversy.
“Greenland doesn’t help Denmark, Denmark doesn’t really spend money to help Greenland, but it’s an important part for the United States. And it’s surrounded by Chinese ships and Russian ships,” he said. “That should be controlled by the United States, not by Denmark.
“And when they wouldn’t go along with it, and with all the money we spend to help them with Russia — and we don’t have to spend any money, we could remove all of our soldiers out of Europe, because as you probably noticed, Europe is a very different place than it was 20 years ago,” Trump added.
“And they better be careful with immigration and energy — if they aren’t careful with those two things, you’re not going to have a Europe anymore.”
