"Daddy has to sometimes use strong language."
That was the Nato's Secretary General Mark Rutte's assessment of Donald Trump's expletive-laden criticism yesterday of Israel and Iran, with Rutte's obsequious language a hallmark of today's Nato summit where the US president was pandered to at every turn, but at what cost?
It was an "extraordinary spectacle" at the summit, Lewis Goodall posted on X. Trump isn't being treated by Rutte and fellow world leaders now as a partner or equal, "but rather a sort of world king with themselves relegated as courtiers".
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Nato leaders were "flattering, toadying, buying into Trump's frequent nonsenses and half-truths and treating him as something different than before, because he is", said Goodall. "It's reflective of their weakness, and Trump's strength."
In one sense it appears to have worked, with Donald Trump telling reporters "we're with them all the way" when it comes to Article 5, despite earlier casting doubt on his commitment to the alliance's mutual defence guarantees.
Rutte "designed this summit around Trump", said BBC Europe editor Katya Adler. To "flatter him" he has managed to build consensus amongst members for "massive hikes in defence spending, to show that Europeans would now take more responsibility for their own security".
On the big takeaway from the summit – the commitment for Nato countries to increase defence spending to 5% of GDP by 2035 – Trump can rightly claim victory.
On this, at least, he is correct that "Europe needs to become more self-sufficient", said The Washington Post. Though the US commitment to the alliance "should remain iron-clad, Washington must also make major investments in other theatres", as the recent strike on Iran and rising threat of China has shown.
What next?
But for all of Trump's chutzpah the biggest issue facing Nato – Ukraine – remains unresolved. In the final declaration of the summit, there is no mention of Russian aggression in Ukraine.
It is telling that, unlike previous summits, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was also not invited to the closed-door leaders' session.
The lack of further concrete commitments will no doubt be "disappointing" for Ukraine, Jamie Shea, a former Nato spokesperson and deputy assistant secretary general, told The Guardian, "especially as most allies would have wanted much stronger language on support, the open door for Ukraine's Nato membership and a clearer path on sanctions against Russia".
What the last week has shown "is we're living in a world where the truly special relationship America has under Trump isn't with Nato, it's with Israel", said Goodall. While there is "no doubt Trump would defend Israel when it's under threat", there cannot be the same certainty about Europe.
