The NATO summit in Ankara on July 7 and 8 is shaping up to be less a defense alliance gathering and more a commerce even...

The NATO summit in Ankara on July 7 and 8 is shaping up to be less a defense alliance gathering and more a commerce event, as the Trump administration pushes European allies to spend more on American military hardware. U.S. Ambassador to NATO Matt Whitaker praised allies for spending nearly $120 billion on defense over the past year, with roughly half of that going toward American-made equipment. He called it a "good start," while making clear Washington opposes European defense initiatives that include what he described as "protectionist rhetoric." Trump has repeatedly threatened to pull out of NATO if allies don't raise defense spending from 2% of GDP to 5%. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has directly tied faster U.S. weapons sales to allies meeting those spending targets. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, during a Washington visit last month, framed European arms purchases as an American jobs program, telling U.S. officials that $300 billion in European weapons orders support 110,000 American jobs. The UK and Germany separately announced plans days before the summit to license-produce American weapons on their own soil. A second European diplomat, speaking anonymously to Politico, described Rutte's strategy plainly: turn the Ankara summit into a deal-signing event where companies announce partnerships, hoping Trump walks away seeing NATO as a profitable arrangement worth keeping. A third European diplomat was even blunter, saying the goal is simply to show up, fulfill spending commitments, and leave before anything goes wrong. Trump posted on Truth Social Thursday that the U.S. spends "far more money on NATO than any other country" to protect allies "without getting anything out of it." He also surprised allies in recent months by announcing troop withdrawals from Germany and canceling a planned deployment to Poland. Europe is watching its eastern flank anxiously as Russia continues operations near NATO's borders, while Washington signals decreasing interest in putting American lives on the line for collective defense. #NATO #Trump #NATOSummit