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Donald Trump has declared that the ceasefire with Iran is over as he arrived at the Nato summit in Ankara, launching an angry broadside in which he complained about the military alliance and repeated his demand for Greenland
The US president, sitting alongside the Nato secretary general, Mark Rutte, called Iran’s leadership scum and “sick people”, and added that he was very upset with the alliance and even threatened to cut off all trade with Spain in a row over defence spending.
Overnight, the US had launched strikes on more than ۸۰ Iranian targets around the strait of Hormuz and revoked a temporary sanctions waiver for Tehran to export oil after Iranian attacks on three commercial vessels on Tuesday.
When asked whether he thought the ceasefire was still in place as he met Rutte in Turkey, Trump said: “I think it’s over. I don’t want to deal with them any more. 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.” However, he added that US negotiators wanted to keep talking.
European leaders were concerned Trump was in a bad mood after a Nato dinner on Tuesday night and were bracing themselves for a difficult summit meeting on Wednesday morning as the situation in the Middle East deteriorated.
Trump said he was “very upset with Nato” and complained that alliance members “didn’t want to help us with the number one state sponsor of terror, that’s Iran”, a reference a refusal by European countries apart from the UK to allow the US to carry out bombing missions from Europe’s airbases.
There was a specific jibe aimed at the UK, which did not initially allow the US to use RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire for bombing missions in Iran before the British prime minister, Keir Starmer, changed his mind and allowed limited attacks on Iranian missile sites.
“The United Kingdom wouldn’t let us use the island for two weeks, so we had to fly back,” Trump said, reiterating complaints he made against Starmer and Britain in the spring as the Iran war continued without the regime in Tehran collapsing.
The ۱۵-minute introduction next to Rutte became a litany of complaint. “Greenland is a big problem for us,” Trump said as he renewed his claim on the self-governing Arctic territory “very important for the United States, but it’s not important for Denmark”.
Earlier, the Danish prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, said as she arrived that Denmark would defend “every inch” of its own territory and emphasised that Greenland was “of course not for sale”.
There was a familiar complaint about Nato defence spending from Trump, despite last year’s agreement by all members, with the exception of Spain, to lift national defence budgets to ۳.۵% of gross domestic product by ۲۰۳۵ – and so bring spending by Europe and Canada in line with the US.
“I’m very upset with Nato, that we pay far, far too much,” he said. “Billions and billions of dollars, too much, because it’s unfair, because we’re protecting them, so we protect them, but they’re not there for us.”
Fresh ire was reserved for Madrid given its decision to reject the ۳.۵% target. “Spain doesn’t agree to anything, and you shouldn’t carry them,” Trump told Rutte. “I don’t want to do any trade with them, alright?” the president said, turning to Scott Bessent, the US Treasury secretary, who replied: “Yes, sir.”
Nato leaders have worked hard to try to Trump-proof the Ankara summit by agreeing a short draft communique in advance. It is expected to reiterate the alliance’s commitment to mutual self-defence if it is signed off by the leaders.
However, a report from Bloomberg suggested Nato might not hold a summit in ۲۰۲۷. The hope would be to avoid a repeat of the outburst that has dominated this year’s summit, which was supposed to showcase more than $۵۰bn (£۳۷.۵bn) in joint arms procurements, designed to show Nato members were bolstering defence spending to deter Russian aggression.
