What A Day - Trump Brings The Drama To NATO

Episode Date: July 7, 2026

NATO’s most important global summit has begun in Turkiye. It’s an event where the world’s leaders meet, mingle, and above all, try to keep President Donald Trump from doing something inconceivably stupid… like threatening to pull troops from Europe if the US does not gain control of Greenland. But NATO has even bigger problems: Russia’s war in Ukraine and the threat Russia poses to the entire coalition. So to talk more about NATO, Trump, and how the summit is trying to keep the president of the United States from throwing an epic temper tantrum, we spoke with Felicia Schwartz, diplomatic correspondent for Politico.And in headlines: Democrats are calling for Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner to drop out of the race in light of a sexual assault allegation against him, a new lawsuit alleges that the Trump administration has been illegally sharing confidential information about Iranian asylum seekers with the Iranian government, and French President Emmanuel Macron met with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa in Damascus restoring official diplomatic ties.Show Notes: Felicia Schwartz's work – https://www.politico.com/staff/felicia-schwartz Call Congress – 202-224-3121 Subscribe to the What A Day Newsletter – https://tinyurl.com/y4y2e9jy What A Day – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcast Follow us on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/crookedmedia/ For a transcript of this episode, please email [e-mail]

Trump has only been on the ground for a few hours, and despite the best hopes of officials heading into this summit, the drama has already begun. I'm Jane Koston, and this is What Today, the show that is congratulating Kelsey Fenler, who was the first American woman to row the 2,300 miles from California to Hawaii. She completed the 43-day journey by herself, during which time she didn't have to hear anything about President Donald Trump or Red Cards or the Senate. She just got to hang out with sharks and seals. Sounds amazing, honestly. On today's show, Trump is already stirring things up at the NATO summit in Turkey A. We discussed the conference with Politico's Felicia Schwartz, who is on location in Ankara. Before we get into all that, here's what we're following today, Tuesday, July 7th.

I believe that it's time for him to drop out of the race. That was New York City mayor, Zeramam Dani, joining a chorus of Democrats calling for Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner to drop out. The calls came after a Politico report Monday detailed a sexual assault allegation against him. Platner has denied the allegation. In the less than 24 hours since Politico's report published, Platner lost the support of California representative Roe Conna, Arizona Senator Ruben Gallego, and Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren. But perhaps the biggest blow to Platner's populist-based campaign was from Vermont Independent Senator Bernie Sanders. He wrote in a statement, quote, in light of these very serious allegations, I have recommended that he step aside.

As of this recording, Plattner was still in the race, but said he would be considering next steps. Maine's ballot deadline is July 13th, and should Plattner drop out, Democrats would have until July 27th to replace him. American's perception of Israel has taken a hit over the past few years. After decades of reliable bipartisan backing, a new AP Norke poll shows rising opposition from Democrats and signs of division even among Republicans regarding the longtime U.S. ally. These findings come nearly three years after Hamas' attack on October 7, 2023, which left 1,200 people dead in Israel, mainly civilians, while 251 hostages were taken back to Gaza. About one-third of U.S. adults believe that Israel committed genocide against Palestinians during the war in Gaza, an accusation that's been leveled by some human rights organizations and vehemently denied by Israel and the U.S. government. About two and ten Americans say Israel has not committed genocide, and the rest, about half,

don't know enough to say. A lawsuit filed Tuesday alleges that the Trump administration has been illegally sharing confidential information about Iranian asylum seekers with the Iranian government. The suit says that the U.S. State Department arranged monthly meetings with Iranian officials starting in March 2025, sharing sensitive information about detained Iranian immigrants the U.S. hoped to deport. The information was shared even after the start of the Iran War. The U.S. government is allowed to work with officials of foreign countries to coordinate deportation logistics, but federal regulations passed in the late 1990s prohibit the government from sharing information that could reveal that the individual getting deported applied for asylum.

The lawsuit is seeking to halt sharing information about asylum seekers with the Iranian government and appoint an independent monitor to prevent future disclosures. Deep down, this is the path forward. It's a clear path forward. The history that we have between Syria and France is one built upon trust. We have stood beside the Syrian people when they wanted their freedom, the liberty. And this is a path that we have never strayed from unlike some others. Given French history in Syria, this is a little funny. French President Emmanuel Macron met with Syrian President Hamad al-Shara in Damascus today,

restoring official diplomatic ties. The interpretation you just heard was provided by France 24. During the visit, Macron and Al-Shara said that they would reappoint ambassadors to one another's country after more than a decade. France had previously closed its embassy in Syria in 2012. The announcement came after explosions injured 18 people near the hotel where Macron was reportedly staying. It was the second attack in Damascus in a week and a big setback for Al-Sharah as he welcomed the first major Western leader to visit since longtime dictator Bashar al-Assad was ousted by insurgent groups in late 2024. And that's the news. Let's talk about NATO.

Today kicks off NATO's most important global summit, which is taking place in Ankara, Turkey-A. It's an event where the world's leaders meet, mingle, and above all, try to keep President Trump from doing something inconceivably stupid. He's already threatened to pull trips from Europe if the U.S. does not gain control of Greenland. He has also long demanded that Europe do what he wants on pretty much everything. But NATO has even bigger problems, like Russia's war in Ukraine and the threat Russia poses to the entire coalition. So to talk more about NATO,

Trump, and how the summit is trying to keep the president of the United States from throwing an epic temper tantrum, I spoke to Felicia Schwartz. She's a diplomatic correspondent for Politico reporting from the conference. Felicia, welcome to Wadda' Day. Thanks so much for having me. So you're in Turkey, and there's a lot happening over there. Can you give me a quick rundown? What have been the biggest developments from day one of the NATO summit? Trump has only been on the ground for a few hours, and despite the best hopes of officials heading into this summit, the drama has already begun. Trump has already mused about how what happens in Ukraine doesn't affect the U.S. He's repeated his desire to have American control of Greenland, something that's a huge irritant in NATO and that European officials have tried very hard to kind of heat off and keep separate.

but now that looms pretty large over everything. He had a big show of bromance with President Erdogan. He was praising things are completely shut down here. All the roads are closed. There's tons of security, and, you know, he's praising how beautiful the roads look. Apparently they named some sort of building after him in their new airport, which he liked. So, you know, we've got some highbrow and some lowbrow, but already, I think the lead up to all these summits, and especially this one, there's just so much.

effort to try to keep it cool, keep things like nice and happy and friendly, but the vibes are already a little bit off. Yeah. I was curious for people who aren't Erdogan or Donald Trump, where are those world leaders heads at when they're coming into this conference? They feel like there is a lot of good that NATO does. They've been generally happy to see that while on the one hand Trump is happy to talk trash about NATO and about Europe, he does remain involved in the alliance. He did show up to this meeting. He's said at various points that he likes the alliance, even when he criticizes it at other points. So what they really want to see is some clarity from the U.S. They've gotten lots of confusing statements from Washington about

what troop pullbacks in Europe will look like. Pete Higgsath announced a six-month force posture review in Europe. They want to know where that's going. I think they really understand, of course, that the U.S. wants to, you know, pivot to Asia, a thing they've been trying to do for a long time. They understand that the U.S. will move things around, but what they really want from the U.S. is clarity. They want to understand what they're doing, when they're doing it, what the plan is, can they plan together? So that's one. And two, you know, Ukraine has had some success on the battlefield. And this is a big moment for Ukraine. to, but on the flip side, they are also running out of very crucially needed air defense, and they need

those PAC-3 interceptors. Those are the missiles that the Patriot system uses. They desperately need those if they're going to hold Russia off. And they want to see the U.S. put more pressure on Russia at this critical time, which, you know, maybe might be a tall ask. So I think what they want to see is clarity, whatever support from the U.S. they can get some commitment to doing something on Russia. This is a very important moment in the alliance. But what Trump might be willing to do, I think sort of depends on how he feels tomorrow. So I'm interested in this because for Ukrainian president of Latimer Zelensky, this is not his first Trump rodeo. I know that Ukraine has been reaching out to other NATO countries looking to get those interceptors. Is this conference

kind of that, you know, there are a lot of diplomacy going on on the war on Ukraine without the United States involved? So the big ask from Ukraine on on these interceptors is they want the U.S. to grant permission for Ukraine to produce these missiles, ideally in Ukraine, but I think most people kind of understand that that's probably too big of an ask, but if not in Ukraine in Europe, which I think is also still a tough ask. But the idea is if Ukraine can get this permission, then they can convince other European allies basically to say, hey, give us what's in your stocks right now, and we will get this capability set up so that by the time you need these, we can backfill you. And so they really want to see some movement on that. But because,

you know, the U.S. kind of controls the production of and what happens to these interceptors, as much diplomacy as Ukraine can do without the U.S., all roads sort of lead to the U.S. And that said, Ukraine has built up a very significant drone program. It's done a lot to defend itself that way, they have found some really strong alternatives. I mean, those alternatives we can see are in very high demand in the Middle East where the drone threat has come to bear. But still, even though Russia is suffering a lot, they've lost a lot of manpower, their economy has taken a big hit. They are still able to kind of hit Ukraine where it hurts. They targeted Ukraine overnight, as all of these leaders were on the way here. And these American capabilities are still very,

very important. It will take some time for the alliance to be able to backfill these capabilities absent any American participation. We'll get back to my conversation with Felicia in a moment to talk more about NATO's Turkish adventure. But if you like the show, make sure to subscribe. Leave a five-star review on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, watch us on YouTube, and share with your friends. More to come after some ads. What a day is brought to you by Americans United for Separation of Church and State. It's everywhere right now, the celebration of America's 200, and we're in the thick of it this month. Christian nationalists are using this milestone not to unite, but to divide. They're pushing the lie that America was founded to be a Christian nation,

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there? The purpose of NATO is, you know, it's a mutual defense alliance on the European continent. An attack against one is attack against all. And their basic stance on Israel, Iran, or, you know, the Middle East is that this is not actually what we do. It's not the job of the alliance to defend you in that theater. And they have basically tried to explain that to Trump time and time again. And they've been trying to get themselves organized ahead of time, basically France, the UK, others, they've been organizing all these capabilities that they will bring to bear once the fighting is over. And I think France has moved some assets into the region as a head start and others are willing to do more things as the fighting kind of, you know, shows that it's, it's not going to

restart again. But that is not what Trump wants. You heard it from Trump today. He basically said, they offered to help after the fighting was over. We don't actually need their help. But it was a test to see who would come, you know, stand with us. We spend billions protecting them from Russia. What do they do for us? So the countries here really want to keep it separate to Trump. This is all one and the same. We help you so much. What do you do for us? And it is true. The U.S. does spend, like, significant, you know, the bulk of NATO funds do come from the U.S. Europe has made some strides here to increase that number, much at Trump's urging. And, you know, they want him to see that good piece and not feel too slighted by what's happened in the Middle East. But, you know,

they don't agree with Trump's strategy there. And they don't think this is for them to be a part of at this time. So as much as they want to keep it separate, it is very, very top of mind from Trump. wants to see them stand with him on this. So Trump has made it very clear what he wants NATO allies to do, not stand with the U.S. on its war with Iran, up their defense spending. But what do NATO leaders want from Trump? What they really want is clarity. They want commitment. They want to know that the U.S. is going to keep troops in Europe. If they're going to move things around, when will that happen? What will be the process? Can we talk about this? Because basically, every time there are working level visits in Washington, they get told, oh, nothing's going to happen, nothing's

going to change. And then they kind of find out last minute, oh, this big group of troops that was supposed to be on its way to Poland, it's actually not coming anymore. They want to understand what Washington's plans are for the future and how NATO fits in and what Washington will do to make sure that this doesn't happen overnight, that there are no security vacuums, that if Washington does have plans to move troops or, you know, they were supposed to send long-range fire capability to Europe to help be a deterrent to Russia. They've said they're not going to do that. But Europe doesn't have the ability overnight to backfill that. So what can Washington do to help Europe to make sure that there are no misses? There are no empty spaces that the alliance

can't fill while it tries to build up and get to a place where it can rely less on the U.S. That's one. And then also, I think anything to show that. that they will stand with Ukraine at this very critical moment, that they can do something, that they can, whatever it is, you know, I don't know that anyone expects overnight. Trump is going to send a bunch of patriot receptors, in part because the supply challenge that Ukraine faces, everyone faces. There aren't so many extra to go around. But can they, can they send any signal that they are helping Ukraine at this critical moment? And I think three is they really want to keep Greenland off the agenda. They don't want the,

U.S. to claim sovereign territory of another country. The worst case scenario there is that the U.S. is attacking the NATO alliance. What would happen to NATO if, you know, the U.S. is going to lay claim to a part of NATO? It totally sends the whole alliance belly up. So they want to keep that off the agenda, even if Trump is musing about it. Can they kind of keep that in the bilateral sphere? Can they come to some sort of arrangement? And defense spending. They need to organize themselves about how they're going to meet this 5% commitment, who's going to do what. They want to show Trump they've been doing things. But there are tensions within the alliance.

The eastern flank states spend a ton more than the rest of Europe. Can they get those goals aligned? It sounds, Felicia, to me, like what NATO wants most out of this summit is drama-free boredom. Am I reading this right? Yes, I think this is the incredible shrinking summit. Every year it gets smaller. They do their best to, you know, do as little as they can. I mean, Trump is barely here for a day. I've covered these things for a long time. They used to be multi-day affairs. There are all kinds of working groups, a Ukraine working group, a Middle East working group, all these different things. And there's none of that. There's only one working session tomorrow with all of the leaders. There are a handful of bylats. And Trump's not even on the the ground really for 24 hours. So they, this is all by way of trying to keep it as, as chill as possible, um, to create as few opportunities for Trump to flip the proverbial table. But whenever Trump is here, there's always something. There always is. Felicia, thank you so much for

joining me. Thank you for having me. That was my conversation with Felicia Schwartz, diplomatic correspondent at Politico. Before we go, New York, come join Crooked Ideas. is in Lower Manhattan for an immersive 90-minute walking tour, inspired by the award-winning podcast Empire City. Most tour guides know their history, but Assad Dandia lived it. He sued the NYPD and won. As a college student, Assad founded a mutual aid organization in Brooklyn.

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