President Trump left the Netherlands on Wednesday after dominating the NATO security summit with a string of international peace agreements he personally brokered and giving assurances that he would deliver an accord between warring Russia and Ukraine.
His status as a global peacemaker after announcing a ceasefire between Israel and Iran earned him the nickname “Daddy” and fawning praise from the world leaders in attendance.
The president announced he would meet with Iran’s leaders next week but shrugged off the need for a new nuclear deal. He told reporters that Iran’s nuclear capabilities had been “blown to kingdom come” by precision U.S. military strikes Saturday.
The president’s successes gave him new leverage to broker a long-sought commitment from NATO to increase Europe’s defense spending and equalize it with the U.S. obligation.
“This is a monumental win for the United States because we were carrying much more than our fair share,” Mr. Trump, a longtime critic of NATO’s funding formula, said at a press conference before leaving The Hague and heading back to the United States.
Mr. Trump’s order for U.S. military strikes on Iran’s nuclear enrichment facilities was credited with hastening an end to the fighting between Iran and Israel that began on June 13. It likely eliminated the nuclear threat from the Islamic Republic’s terrorist regime.
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“We just ended a war in 12 days that was simmering for 30 years,” Mr. Trump said.
The president took credit for halting a brewing conflict between Pakistan and India, both nuclear powers, and for bringing an end to the fighting between Rwanda and Congo, which plan to sign a peace agreement Friday.
He said peace between Ukraine and Russia “has been more difficult than other wars” and that he was being sarcastic when he pledged during his campaign to end the fighting within 24 hours.
Mr. Trump, who met on the NATO sidelines with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said the two countries want an end to the conflict. Mr. Trump said he planned to talk with the Russian president.
“I think it’s a great time to end it. I’m going to speak to Vladimir Putin to see if we can get it ended,” he said.
Mr. Trump’s tenuous ceasefire between Iran and Israel has held, and he was praised at the NATO summit for using unorthodox tactics to keep it that way.
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The president dropped an angry F-bomb on live television and sternly ordered Israel, on social media, to turn around its military planes.
Admiring NATO chief Mark Rutte told Mr. Trump on camera, “Daddy has to sometimes use strong language.”
Mr. Rutte praised Mr. Trump’s decision to bomb Iran nuclear sites as “decisive action, very targeted, to make sure that Iran would not be able to get his hands on a nuclear capability.”
He added, “I think he deserves all the praise.”
Other world leaders credited Mr. Trump for securing the higher defense spending commitment, which is projected to add hundreds of billions of dollars annually to NATO’s defense coffers.
“It’s a big win, I think, for both President Trump and I think it’s also a big win for Europe.” Finnish President Alexander Stubb said. “We’re witnessing the birth of a new NATO, which means a more balanced NATO.”
Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda said the summit should adopt Mr. Trump’s MAGA motto: ‘make NATO great again.’”
Mr. Trump spent part of his NATO trip rebutting reports that the U.S. strikes did not achieve the objective of taking out Iran’s nuclear capabilities.
He disputed a leaked preliminary intelligence report that said the U.S. strikes did not significantly damage Iran’s nuclear program. The assessment, labeled by the Defense Department as “low confidence,” was taken immediately after the United States dropped 14 bunker-buster bombs and fired 30 ballistic missiles at Iran’s Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan nuclear facilities.
“Since then, we’ve collected additional intelligence. We’ve also spoken to people who have seen the site, and the site is obliterated,” Mr. Trump said. “And we think everything nuclear is down there. They didn’t take it out.”
He accused news media of demeaning U.S. military pilots who dropped the bombs on the targets in the pitch darkness after flying for 36 hours.
“They were maligned and treated very bad,” Mr. Trump said about news outlets that reported the strikes did not destroy the nuclear facilities. “We had a great victory there, and we then came here, and I think we had a great victory here.”
• Mallory Wilson contributed to this report.
• Susan Ferrechio can be reached at sferrechio@washingtontimes.com.
• Kerry Picket can be reached at kpicket@washingtontimes.com.
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