Ankara, Turkey —
As European leaders were walking into Wednesday’s NATO summit here, the mood was dark.
President Donald Trump was seated just outside the conference hall doors, angrily unspooling every grievance he had with the defense alliance, from its refusal to give him Greenland to the refusal of Spain to allow its bases to be used in the Iran war, a conflict he also threatened to restart.
As they caught wind of what he was saying to reporters, Trump’s counterparts braced themselves for the lashing many expected to come at this summit but had still hoped to avoid. Worse, they feared Trump would tell them he was pulling out of NATO altogether.
As it turned out, Trump behind the scenes was a little less bombastic than Trump in front of cameras.
