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Greenland 'is very important for US, but not important for Denmark,' Trump says
Rutte says he understands Trump’s frustrations, but insists these are “isolated” cases, with many European countries helping out. He very softly pushes back on some specific countries that Trump named earlier, including Germany and France.
Trump comes back with pointed criticism of the UK which “would not let us use the island for two weeks,” and Italy being “very bad.”
But Rutte says that Trump “even got Spain to pay 2%.”
On Greenland, Rutte says the pair agreed at Davos to increase US military presence there, and he pledges to “make sure that deal is step by step being implemented.”
But this only triggers Trump to go again and say Greenland is “very important for the US, but it’s not important for Denmark” (that’s not true).
He then goes on a rant about the second world war and Nazis in Denmark, before coming back to say he is “very unhappy with Nato.”
Rutte comes back with over-the-top praise for Trump, which makes the US president go “that’s why I like him.”
Key events
The formal session is now finally getting under way.
We should get a few brief speeches and then they will move on to shouting at each other discussing the issues of particular importance behind the closed doors.
As they gather for the opening session, it looks like the leaders got personalised pens as a gift from the hosts, Turkey.
Cute.
Madrid downplaying Trump's renewed threats to cut trade with Spain
Sam Jones
in Madrid
Madrid is downplaying Trump’s renewed threat to cut all trade with Spain.
Spanish government sources said they were greeting the US president’s latest broadside calmly, adding:
“Our country maintains an excellent social, cultural, and economic relationship with the US, and we have no intention of changing that.”
They also suggested people would do well to reflect on three things:
“One, that the US has a trade surplus with Spain (meaning it benefits more from this relationship than we do). Two, that the EU is a trading union in which no member state can be singled out (as the commission itself has emphasised on several occasions). And three, that economic ties are forged by private companies, not governments. The bilateral relationship between the US and Spain is beneficial for both countries, both in the commercial and defence spheres.”
And let’s remember that we’ve been here before. In March, Trump threatened to cut all trade with Spain after it refused the US permission to use jointly operated bases in southern Spain to continue its attacks in Iran.
Not much to report on from the arrivals, but it’s worth noting that France’s Emmanuel Macron is back to wearing his aviators, even indoors.
When he did that first in Davos earlier this year, we were told it was due to a broken blood vessel in his eye. His cool look attracted lots of attention, and a deluge of new orders for the makers of his glasses.
He has been wearing them again for about a week now. Could it be that the eye problem is now back?
Elsewhere in Nato fashion news, Albania’s Edi Rama is wearing his trademark snow white sneakers.
If you want some help with who is who, you can look at this family photo from last night.
At the first glance, it looks like all the other family photos you have seen over the years, but there is a small little nerdy nugget here: if you look at the second row, you have Czech representatives … on both flanks.
The Czech prime minister, Andrej Babiš, is on the far left, and the country’s president, Petr Pavel, on the far right.
It is a consequence of an unresolved competence dispute between the two, which saw the country’s constitutional tribunal intervene last month, ordering the government to allow Pavel to take part, in line with previous precedents.
The dispute is expected to be properly settled with a longer hearing later this year.
Leaders arrive for official welcome as Nato summit in Ankara gets underway
Meanwhile, the leaders are now arriving for the official welcome ceremony, getting a handshake from Rutte and Erdoğan
If you want to play the game of guessing who is who – Sweden’s Ulf Kristersson and Greece’s Kyriakos Mitsotakis were the last two just now – you can watch it live here:
Trump's theatrical threat to cut off all trade with Spain is not new - snap analysis
Trump’s comments on Spain – including his somewhat theatrical demand to cut all trade with Madrid – are particularly interesting.
But he has done it so many times before, but not much actually happened.
He said it first in March, when Spain pointedly refused to back his Iran war, prompting an angry response from the European Commission, which pointed out that you can’t really cut off trade with one specific EU country (Europe Live, 4 March).
Trump is not in a mood to hold back - snap analysis
Arriving in Ankara, European leaders were probably resigned to the fact that Donald Trump would say something difficult during this summit, but he is clearly even trying to hold back this morning.
He has powerfully reiterated his frustration with Nato, pointedly criticising an array of countries – with Spain, the UK and Italy getting the most stick – before repeating his demand to take control of Greenland and calling it “a big problem.”
Ouch.
This will not make the subsequent leaders’ meeting any easier.
And that ends their short briefing, with Trump saying he will be back later, and Rutte desperately throwing in that he will also do a press conference if anyone is interested in it please.
Trump also heaps praise on Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, praising the Turkish military might, and, amusingly, out of nowhere praises China, too.
'As far as I am concerned, it's over,' Trump says of Iran memorandum of understanding
On Iran, Trump says the memorandum of understanding with Iran is “over,” because “I do not want to deal with them any more, they are scum.”
“They are sick people, they are vicious, violent people.”\
He then adds:
“As far as I am concerned, it’s just a waste of time dealing with them. They are liars. … There is something wrong with them. They are cuckoo. As far as I am concerned, it is over.”
Greenland 'is very important for US, but not important for Denmark,' Trump says
Rutte says he understands Trump’s frustrations, but insists these are “isolated” cases, with many European countries helping out. He very softly pushes back on some specific countries that Trump named earlier, including Germany and France.
Trump comes back with pointed criticism of the UK which “would not let us use the island for two weeks,” and Italy being “very bad.”
But Rutte says that Trump “even got Spain to pay 2%.”
On Greenland, Rutte says the pair agreed at Davos to increase US military presence there, and he pledges to “make sure that deal is step by step being implemented.”
But this only triggers Trump to go again and say Greenland is “very important for the US, but it’s not important for Denmark” (that’s not true).
He then goes on a rant about the second world war and Nazis in Denmark, before coming back to say he is “very unhappy with Nato.”
Rutte comes back with over-the-top praise for Trump, which makes the US president go “that’s why I like him.”
Nato 'have not treated us right,' 'very upset' Trump says, as he repeats Greenland is 'big problem for us'
Trump also says “Greenland is a big problem for us,” as he laments that the US is spending so much money “to protect these countries from Russia,” but doesn’t get anything in return.
He says Nato countries “have not treated us right,” and the US has “been treated unfairly; we pay disproportionately.”
He says only some smaller countries wanted to help with Iran, because “they are the most vulnerable” on Russia, and understand what is at stake.
“I am very upset with Nato that we pay far, far too much,” he says.
Trump says he is not happy with Nato; says Spain is 'terrible partner,' tells officials to 'cut all trade with Spain'
Trump repeats that he is “not happy with Nato because of what they did with Greenland” and they refusal to help with Iran.
He says he spoke to several countries who didn’t help.
But he particularly lashes out against Spain, saying he “does not want to do anything” with Spain, as he instructs his officials to “cut all trade with Spain.”
“Spain is a terrible partner in Nato. They don’t participate, they don’t pay, I don’t want anything to do with Spain. Cut off all trade with Spain, including visits. We don’t want anything. Watch them come running back, oh, they will come running back.”
Trump is now speaking, meeting with Nato’s Rutte.
He says they had “some great meetings” last night, particularly praising the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Speaking about Nato summit, he says “something has been determined, and some haven’t frankly.” God knows what that means.
He briefly turns to Iran, he says they are “very dangerous” and “sick” for “shooting rockets at ships, and so we hit them very hard last night.”
He says the Iranians are “dirty players,” who “go after everyone, probably including me,” as he calls them “scum”.
“They are evil people,” he says.
Nato leaders meet in Ankara - live stream
As the official programme is about to start in Ankara, you can follow the summit with us here:
But I will also obviously bring you all the latest here, so don’t feel you have to watch it. I will make sure you don’t miss a thing.
Ankara summit 'about implementation, getting things done,' Nato's Rutte says
Arriving early for the summit, Nato’s Rutte said the meeting was “about implementation, about getting it done” after last year’s push to increase defence spending.
He said that European allies and Canada were “stepping up” with more money, more jobs, and more capacity, but there is still more to be done.
“If you look at it from the United States perspective, you will have European allies which are much more capable, with the US, to work together in Nato to keep one billion people safe,” he said, repeatedly praising Trump for pushing Europe to do more.
Rutte also said the meeting was about reiterating the alliance’s support for Ukraine, expecting the leaders to agree on “a strong commitment to keep supporting Ukraine.”
He said he expected the leaders to “acknowledge collectively that Russia is the long-term threat” to Nato.
Let’s see how it all unfolds with grumpy Trump in the audience though. But Rutte insisted the US president was still “completely committed” to the alliance, despite his comments last night suggesting otherwise.
Morning opening: What could possibly go wrong?
Jakub Krupa
Nato leaders are meeting in Ankara, Turkey today for what was meant to be a “Trump-proof” summit: short and sweet, with little space for any drama or outbursts from the notoriously unpredictable US president.
Yeah, good luck with that.
Even before the summit proper began, Trump lashed out against several Nato allies saying he was “very disappointed” that “they were not there” for the US on Iran, threatened to pull out US troops from Europe, and repeated his claim that Greenland should be controlled by the US, not Denmark.
That’s a good start.
Denmark’s Mette Frederiksen was forced to say this morning that her country was “ready to defend” Greenland if needed, reiterating the territory was “not for sale.”
Expect more of the same today, as Trump is due to show up shortly, accompanied by secretary general Mark Rutte, who has the impossible job of keeping him on side.
The formal welcome ceremony gets under way shortly at 10:45am Turkish time (that’s 8:45am UK time, and 9:45am CEST), where we will get all sorts of official photos.
The proper session starts at 11.15 (9:15am UK), and will last only for a few hours. We are then going to hear from leaders about how well (or not) it went.
I will bring you all the latest here.
It’s Wednesday, 8 July 2026, it’s Jakub Krupa here, and this is Europe Live.
Good morning.
