Trump, however, has long been a NATO skeptic. He has excoriated NATO as a financial drain on the United States, and it was reported that several times during his first term he even privately threatened to withdraw from it.

Following years of criticizing NATO as a "rip-off," President Trump now endorses the alliance as member countries agree to double their defense spending targets.

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte praised President Trump’s commitment to the military alliance during a recent interview and said the president deserves credit for pushing the 32-nation members

At the NATO summit held in The Hague, Netherlands, on June 25, 2025, President Donald Trump redefined the contours of American leadership-not through war, but through dominance, negotiation, and fiscal pressure.

Since US President Donald Trump took office this year, one theme has come up time and again: his rule is a threat to the US-led international order. As the US political scientist John Mearsheimer famously argued,

A Supreme Court decision, a Middle East ceasefire, and a major trade breakthrough with China shifted the narrative in his favor.

Did you hear what Trump said about Zelenskyy?” one Balkan journalist quipped, flashing a crooked grin as he passed a group of Ukrainian reporters at the NATO summit in The Hague. The Ukrainians looked up from their laptops,

Donald Trump furiously pushed back Wednesday against reports that his surprise strike on three of Iran’s nuclear facilities hadn’t “completely and fully obliterated” them as he’s previously claimed.

As NATO leaders convened in The Hague for a two-day summit on June 24–25, allies and Kyiv braced for the first annual meeting since U.S. President Donald Trump’s return to office. With the srael-Iranian conflict dominating the news and the summit agenda focused on the new 5% defense spending target,

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