Nato faces summit pressure as Trump demands ally loyalty over Iran conflict support

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Highlights

Trump demands greater loyalty from Nato allies regarding the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran, criticizing Italy, France, Germany, and the UK for insufficient support.
Rutte presents data showing European and Canadian allies have raised defence spending by $1.2tn since 2017, with an extra $250bn expected over Trump's next two years if re-elected.
Nato members agreed to lift spending to 5 percent at last year's Hague summit, but implementation remains uneven and some, including the UK, are constrained by domestic issues.

Trump criticism and summit positioning

As reported by Financial Times, Trump says he expects "loyalty" from Nato allies and faults the alliance for not moving faster to assist in the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran. Speaking at the White House alongside Nato secretary-general Mark Rutte on Wednesday, he says the U.S. is consistently loyal to its allies and should receive the same in return.

Trump singles out Italy, France, Germany and the UK as disappointing partners. He also says he would have skipped the upcoming summit in Ankara if Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had not personally urged him to attend.

The U.S. president also renews criticism of UK energy policy, saying the country is "dying" while buying oil from Norway instead of expanding drilling in the North Sea. His remarks come two weeks before a summit expected to be dominated by Washington's push for allies to shoulder more of the burden for conventional defence.

Defence spending gains and alliance strains

Rutte arrives at the Oval Office with printed charts aimed at showing Nato's increased military spending and the benefits for the U.S. jobs market. One chart, titled "The Trump Trillion", highlights a $1.2tn rise in defence spending by European and Canadian allies since Trump first took office in 2017.

Rutte says Washington's Nato partners are on track to spend an additional $250bn on defence over the first two years of Trump's second term. Nato members last year agreed at their Hague summit to lift defence spending to 5 percent, but progress remains uneven, with some countries moving quickly and others, including the UK, constrained by domestic pressures.

While Rutte acknowledges Trump's frustration over allied support during the Iran war, he describes those incidents as isolated and notes that 4,000 to 5,000 U.S. aircraft take off from bases in Europe during the conflict. He also says nine or 10 non-Nato countries are expected to join the 32 alliance members at the Ankara summit, underscoring wider interest in Trump's leadership despite his repeated criticism of the bloc.

In our earlier article on the White House’s $87.6 billion supplemental funding request for the Iran war, we explained how the proposal sparked sharp pushback in Congress over oversight, transparency, and whether emergency war funding was being used to carry unrelated Pentagon priorities. We also noted lawmakers’ concerns about large amounts of unspent defense money and unanswered questions about the conflict’s aims and total costs.

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