[Transcript edited for clarity, flow and length]
Donald traveled to Ankara, Turkey, this week for the NATO Summit, where he once again managed to humiliate the United States of America. According to The New York Times, however, there were really two separate summits taking place simultaneously. There was Donald’s summit, dominated by grievances, insults, unrealistic demands for loyalty, and his decision to launch additional airstrikes against Iran in violation of the peace agreement. Then there was the actual NATO summit.
While Donald monopolized headlines with his bizarre behavior and increasingly detached commentary, NATO leaders quietly continued the real work. They focused on increasing defense spending, expanding military cooperation, reaffirming support for Ukraine, and preparing for a future in which Europe assumes greater responsibility for its own security. Implicit in that future is something far more consequential: Europe is preparing for a world in which it can no longer rely on the United States because, thanks to Donald and the Republican Party, America has proven itself to be an utterly unreliable partner.
Political scientist Nathalie Tocci described the contrast perfectly. Donald’s summit was little more than a political performance while the real work continued behind closed doors. European leaders largely ignored his complaints, treating them as the familiar outbursts they have grown accustomed to rather than coherent policy proposals worthy of serious consideration.
Donald, meanwhile, continued attacking Iran with the kind of projection that has always defined him.
Donald: It’s a very interesting question. To me, I think it’s over. I don’t want to deal with them anymore. They’re scum. You know what scum is? They’re scum. They’re sick people. They’re led by sick people and they’re vicious violent people. And if they had a nuclear weapon, they’d use it. As far as I’m concerned, it’s over. I’ll speak to our negotiators. They want to negotiate they’re good people. Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner, but they have to come back to me as far as I’m concerned. It’s just a waste of time dealing with them. They’re liars. We make a deal. If I make a deal with him, we have a deal. And he goes out, he talks. We make a deal. Everyone’s agreed. No nuclear weapon. We make a deal. They go outside, talk to the press, they say we never even talked about it. There’s something wrong with them. They’re cuckoo. As far as I’m concerned, it’s over.
I keep telling him he needs to stop looking in the mirror when he says things like that.
Do I know what scum is? As a matter of fact, I do. I’ve known Donald my entire life. I’ve also seen photographs of the reflecting pool, so yes, I’m well acquainted with scum.
The irony, of course, is impossible to miss. Donald is accusing somebody else of refusing to honor agreements. This is the man who has spent his entire political career ripping up treaties, abandoning commitments, betraying allies, and changing his mind whenever it serves his immediate interests. His complaints would be laughable if they weren’t so dangerous.
Nor are these kinds of insults likely to advance any diplomatic effort involving Iran. Nevertheless, Donald continued digging himself deeper, later insisting that the conflict with Iran was not even a war.
Donald: Including trying to end the war with Iran or whatever you call it. It’s not even a war, it’s a military operation. It’s a denuclearization. That’s really what it is of Iran because I don’t think he wants to see them have a nuclear weapon either. I’m pretty sure of that.
If preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon was truly Donald’s priority, perhaps he should not have torn up the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the nuclear agreement that was already accomplishing exactly that.
Donald then turned his attention to NATO itself.
Sitting beside NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, Donald aired yet another list of grievances, this time complaining that the alliance had somehow failed him because its members declined to join his illegal and unconstitutional war of choice against Iran.
Donald: And I want to thank Mark. He’s been a great secretary general of NATO. I’m not happy with NATO because of what they did with Greenland. And I’m not happy with NATO because of the fact that they didn’t want to help us with the number one state sponsor of terror that’s Iran. They were unwilling to help us. Now in all fairness, they didn’t speak to Mark about it. I think if I did, it might’ve been different, but we didn’t need help. But I was really testing. I wanted to see whether or not they’d be there. But the answer is they were. I spoke to Germany, I spoke to France, spoke to UK, spoke to Italy. I didn’t speak to Spain. Spain is a wasted cause.
NATO countries have absolutely no obligation to assist another member in a conflict that country voluntarily starts. Article 5 exists to ensure that allies come to one another’s defense when one of them is attacked, not when one member decides to launch a war of choice and expects everyone else to clean up the mess.
In fact, Article 5 has only been invoked once in NATO’s history. Following the terrorist attacks of September 11, our allies came to America’s aid in Afghanistan and Iraq. They honored their commitments to us. Donald, however, now appears offended that they declined to participate in a war he chose to start without consulting them.
Donald’s resentment toward Spain became even more unhinged.
Donald: Spain is a wasted cause. We don’t want to do any trade business with Spain anymore... Cut off all trade with Spain... They’re hopeless. They’re bad people... Please, please, we want to trade with you, sir...
I am so tired of him.
I am tired of the constant complaining, the endless lying, and the sheer ugliness of his character. The only reason Donald appears to like Mark Rutte is because Rutte has chosen the path of appeasement. Rather than challenging Donald’s misinformation or defending a fellow NATO ally, he simply sat there while Donald launched an entirely baseless attack on Spain.
Nobody bothered pointing out the obvious.
The United States does not negotiate trade agreements with Spain. We negotiate with the European Union. Donald apparently does not know the difference.
That ignorance has become one of the defining characteristics of his presidency. Whether the subject is trade, diplomacy, military alliances, or international law, Donald repeatedly demonstrates that he neither understands how these institutions function nor has any interest in learning. Yet he continues making decisions that affect the entire world as though his ignorance were somehow a substitute for expertise.
Donald’s meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy did little to inspire confidence either. Throughout the exchange, he stumbled over his words, confused countries, mixed up world leaders, and appeared increasingly disoriented. At this point, it feels less like an isolated incident and more like another ordinary day.
Donald: I told this story yesterday. We had 111 missiles shot by the Islamic Republic of Japan. They were shot at the aircraft. JCPOC, what a terrible, what a terrible deal. I call it the Obama nuclear waste deal because what he did with that deal is he caused tremendous hardship in the Middle East. It was a terrible, terrible... You have a question for President Putin, please? Do you have a question for President Putin? Not so much. And what would you like to ask him? Because I’m going to ask him that question.
Good catch, Donald.
First of all, it is the JCPOA, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, not the “JCPOC.” Although, judging from what came next, perhaps he had something else in mind entirely.
Second, unless something has changed dramatically overnight, Donald started a war with Iran, not Japan. I’m sure Japan is more than a little concerned hearing the President of the United States confuse it with a country he is actively bombing. Of course, Donald is constitutionally incapable of admitting a mistake, so rather than acknowledging that he meant Iran instead of Japan, I suppose we should all hope he doesn’t decide the easiest solution is to start a war with Japan as well.
Then there was the moment he referred to President Zelenskyy as President Putin before attempting to recover by joking that he would ask Vladimir Putin whatever question the reporter had intended for Zelenskyy. The joke, if that’s what it was, landed exactly the way most of Donald’s jokes do: awkwardly and at America’s expense.
As though that weren’t enough, Donald once again demonstrated his breathtaking inability to understand the difference between an aggressor and a victim when discussing Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine.
Donald: And I just think it’s sometimes I used an analogy and it sounds simple, but it’s sort of true. You have two kids in a park and they don’t like each other and they start fighting. Sometimes you have to let them fight. Let them see that it’s tough. It’s tough. Fighting is tough.
No.
Russia illegally invaded a sovereign nation. It has bombed civilian infrastructure, abducted thousands of Ukrainian children, murdered civilians, destroyed entire cities, and inflicted unimaginable suffering on millions of people.
That is not remotely comparable to two children getting into a fistfight in a park.
Reducing an illegal war of aggression to a playground dispute is not wisdom. It is moral blindness. It ignores the reality that one country chose to invade another and continues committing atrocities against the Ukrainian people. Donald’s analogy does not simplify the conflict. It trivializes it.
Donald later returned to Iran, making clear that despite repeatedly insisting the conflict was over, he remains more than willing to continue escalating it.
Well, first of all, we took out additional... They were trying to rebuild their radar and they had about 60% built. Now they have to start all over again. Look, we’re not attacking at the highest level. The highest level of the bridges which we can knock down. I would say in one day we knock down every single bridge in Iran. There’s not a thing they can do about it. Their electric manufacturing facilities, right? Their electric plants where they make their electricity there. If we have to, we’ll take them out. I don’t want to do that, but if we have to, we’ll take them out. They have desalination plants, we’ll take them out if we have to. I hate to do that. That’s probably the one I would like not to do least. We attacked Kharg Island last night. We knocked out a piece. I said, Don’t touch the oil because maybe we’ll take over Kharg Island. We may take over Kharg Island. There’s not a thing they can do about it. But I said, Don’t hit the pipes, just hit everything else. And they hit it. They may hit it again tonight. So as per your question, normally I’m not that way, but they really deserve it.
“Normally I’m not that way.”
Really?
I’m fairly certain Donald has spent his entire adult life demonstrating precisely who he is.
What makes these comments especially disturbing is what they reveal about his priorities. Donald explicitly said he wants Iran’s oil infrastructure left intact because he may want to seize it later. Meanwhile, he is perfectly willing to destroy civilian infrastructure including bridges, electrical grids, and desalination plants that millions of ordinary Iranians rely upon for survival.
For somebody who repeatedly claimed he wanted to liberate the Iranian people from an oppressive regime, he seems remarkably comfortable threatening the very infrastructure those people depend upon every single day.
I am no longer sure how many times somebody has to threaten actions that sound indistinguishable from war crimes before members of his own party decide enough is enough. Apparently, we have not yet reached that number.
Instead, Republicans continue pretending everything is perfectly normal. They are even pretending it is perfectly acceptable that Mitch McConnell has essentially disappeared from public view because preserving a Senate seat apparently matters more than answering basic questions about the functioning of our government.
Finally, Donald offered his assessment of how the summit had gone.
Just again, if you could have seen the respect and the love in the room, and it’s love really for the country, for our country. I don’t want to say me because you’ll say, Oh, he’s so conceited. He’s such a conceited person. But they do. I mean, they like the job I’m doing. They said, Sir, we love you. These are grown people saying that. Isn’t that nice? I don’t know, maybe they’re trying to get to me.
For perhaps the briefest moment, Donald demonstrated something approaching self awareness when he acknowledged that people might think he is conceited.
On that point alone, they would be correct.
Everything else is fantasy.
Nobody, with the possible exception of Mark Rutte, is telling Donald they love him. Nobody at NATO is calling him “sir.” Quite the opposite. Our allies increasingly view him with contempt. They are exhausted by his threats, his lies, his endless grievances, his abuse of allies, and his complete inability to distinguish leadership from domination.
Most importantly, they have concluded that the United States can no longer be relied upon to honor its commitments.
That is the true story of this NATO summit.
While Donald obsessed over personal slights and imaginary praise, NATO quietly adapted to a world in which American leadership can no longer be taken for granted. Europe is investing more heavily in its own defense. It is strengthening military cooperation independent of Washington. It is preparing for the possibility that the United States may no longer be a stable partner in defending liberal democracy.
That is Donald’s legacy.
He believes he dominates every room he enters. In reality, the rest of the world has begun planning for a future without him and, increasingly, without us.
They are not strengthening NATO because Donald inspired confidence.
They are strengthening it because he destroyed it.
“I am so tired of him.”
Girl, same. ❤️😂 Mary, that’s a T-shirt idea. Everybody will know exactly who we’re talking about.
There's ideology, then there's idiotology. How does it just keep going on and on and on and on.