00:00Well, Donald Trump made those angry comments as he was about to board his flight to go to NATO, his first appearance at a NATO summit since returning to the White House.
00:09Now, the trip was supposed to center on how the U.S. secured a historic increase in military spending from the other countries in the defensive alliance, effectively bending to Trump's will.
00:20But in the spotlight instead now is Trump's decision to not only strike those three nuclear enrichment facilities in Iran, but also on this faltering ceasefire between Iran and Israel.
00:31France 24's Kethevan Gorghastani joins me live now from The Hague.
00:34Kethevan, you have covered the White House for a very, very long time before coming back to join us here in Paris as an international affairs editor.
00:41I mean, what do you think about Donald Trump's outburst with some very strong language against both Israel and Iran as he headed out there to the summit?
00:50Well, I don't think I've ever seen Donald Trump this angry, at least in public, in front of the cameras of the U.S. press pool.
01:01I also don't think I remember any U.S. president ever using the F-bomb in such a manner in front of the cameras of the world.
01:10So it really showed how angry Donald Trump was.
01:14And it also showed, to Noga's point, showed Israel what it's like to be on the bad side of Donald Trump.
01:22Because as much as he insisted that both sides violated the ceasefire, that he was angry with both sides, he did say,
01:30I'm also angry with the Iranians, but I'm very angry with the Israelis, because he probably feels that he had done the job for the Israelis in part,
01:41and that the fact that the Israelis might have violated that ceasefire put him on the spot,
01:47having claimed that he had managed to get the ceasefire, that they put him in a bad situation.
01:53And that, of course, is not a good thing to do to Donald Trump.
01:56So really, Donald Trump showing there that he, most of all, doesn't really choose sides.
02:03Most of all, what he wants is to be able to say that he is the man who has made the deal, that he is the dealmaker.
02:09And right now, if these strikes or this violation of ceasefire is confirmed, that puts him in a weaker spot.
02:19And, of course, it brings back, again, the situation in the Middle East to the forefront of this NATO summit
02:26that technically does not really discuss this issue, although most of the countries that are going to be present here
02:34have said in one way or another that, of course, the situation between Israel and Iran is going to be top of mind
02:40and is probably going to be the subject of discussions on the sidelines during some of those bilateral meetings,
02:46if not during the plenary session.
02:48And, Kethevan, this is all happening as this NATO summit, where you are, is getting underway.
02:55This was supposed to be a big moment of a big win for Donald Trump, getting the other countries to increase their defense spending.
03:01I mean, what's going to be happening there now with all of this overshadowing what's supposed to be on the agenda there in The Hague?
03:06Well, look, I think all of the NATO members will want to focus on the things they can actually agree on.
03:17And the increase in defense spending will be one of those issues.
03:23There seems to be an agreement on increasing that to 5%, splitting it from 3.5% on actual military spending,
03:34which means troops, weapons and all of that, plus 1.5% on sort of sideline defense spending,
03:43things like infrastructure, like cyber security, a way to give a little bit of a wiggle room for the countries
03:49that are sort of dragging their feet to increase their military spending.
03:55One country that is likely to get not an official exemption, but a sort of more wiggle room than the others,
04:01is Spain, because the Spaniards being very clear that they didn't want to aim that high
04:08because they're not even meeting the current goal, which is 2%.
04:13They're well below that.
04:14So the increase in spending is, of course, a way for NATO members to show their good faith to Donald Trump,
04:21who's been asking for increased spendings by the other members of NATO for years now.
04:27And so it's a way of giving Donald Trump a win, a big win, saying, look, you asked us to do this, we are doing this.
04:34There's still a little bit of debate as to what the timeline of this increased spending will be.
04:41The NATO Secretary General, Mark Rutte, wanted 2032.
04:45It seems that most countries are moving more towards 2035,
04:50with a sort of review of that timeline happening in 2029.
04:54That's important because all of those sort of timelines and deadlines will happen technically after Donald Trump has left office.
05:04But at least he'll be able to come away with that major win.
05:08And how Donald Trump feels at this NATO summit is going to be also very much on the minds of all of the other members.
05:16They wanted to give him that win.
05:18They've also, it's reported, have sort of condensed the summit around one major question in order to get Trump on board
05:28and to minimize the chances of any potential outburst or any early departure by the U.S. president.
05:36And finally, of course, pushed a little bit to the sideline is the Ukraine question,
05:41partly also not to create too much tension with the Americans.
05:46Vladimir Zelensky will get bilateral with the U.S. president tomorrow.
05:52He'll also get bilaterals with other world leaders like the French president Emmanuel Macron later on today.
05:59But he will not be taking part officially in that official session that will take place tomorrow.
06:06He has, however, been invited to the leaders' dinner that will be taking place this year.
