Trump hails Israel-Iran ceasefire at NATO summit amid spending push

US President Donald Trump, speaking at the NATO summit in The Hague, hailed the Israel-Iran ceasefire as progressing ‘very well’, taking credit for Israel’s decision to abort a full-scale aerial strike. Alongside NATO’s Mark Rutte, he praised Netanyahu’s limited retaliation as ‘a great thing’, despite the Israeli PM’s claim of Iranian truce violations. Simultaneously, Trump pressured allies to boost defence spending, controversially leaking Rutte’s private notes—which addressed him as ‘Mr President, dear Donald’—pledging 5% NATO budget targets. The move underscored European anxieties over Russian aggression while exposing Trump’s transactional alliance tactics. Trump framed the de-escalation as a personal win, though Israel’s partial strike revealed lingering tensions. Rutte’s effusive messages, made public, blurred NATO’s diplomatic norms with overt flattery of Trump’s Iran policy. The dual focus on ceasefire diplomacy and spending demands highlighted Trump’s blend of crisis management and political spectacle.