A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
President Trump is back in Washington after meeting with European leaders at the NATO summit. He also surprised some people by praising NATO. In just a few minutes, we're going to hear how the foreign minister of one NATO ally views that. Trump also spent a lot of time defending a U.S. strike on nuclear sites in Iran.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Let's work through all this with NPR White House correspondent Deepa Shivaram, who traveled with the president to The Hague and back. Welcome back, Deepa.
DEEPA SHIVARAM, BYLINE: Hey there.
INSKEEP: So how did Iran take so much attention?
SHIVARAM: Yeah. I mean, right from the moment Trump announced these strikes on Iran, he's been saying that they, quote, "obliterated" the nuclear sites that held these enriched materials, right? But on the way to The Hague, news broke about this leaked intelligence assessment that undercut what Trump was saying that said that the damage was less than the president had described. So Trump was focused on that the whole time at NATO. He said that the leaked report was inconclusive.
But while we were on Air Force One, coming back to Washington yesterday, the CIA released a really unusual statement. Director John Ratcliffe said there's, quote, "a body of credible evidence" that the damage caused is actually severe, and that more closely mirrors what Trump has been saying. Like I said, it's unusual for the CIA to make any kind of public statement, especially an assessment that's released this close to the event that happened. And Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is holding another press conference on the topic this morning. So this is really something that's not going away, and senators are supposed to get a briefing on this later today, as well.
INSKEEP: We should pause for a moment just to be real. This is an argument about which exact words to describe a strike in which we know some things were blown up. Some other things may or may not have blown up, and we probably have to wait to find out for sure, but we're arguing over the exact words to use. What are NATO leaders saying about this?
SHIVARAM: Well, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte was talking about the Iran strike even before the NATO summit started. I mean, he was praising Trump left and right about a lot of things. Trump posted on social media a private text message he got from Rutte where Rutte is calling him dear Donald. On stage yesterday at NATO, Rutte called Trump daddy, which turned into a news cycle of its own. And yesterday, the White House released a video of Trump at NATO to the tune of Usher's "Hey Daddy."
INSKEEP: Oh.
SHIVARAM: So there was a lot of love between those two.
INSKEEP: OK - didn't see that one coming.
SHIVARAM: (Laughter).
INSKEEP: So a lot of compliments for the president. Did that help the NATO allies in dealing with the president?
SHIVARAM: Yeah. I mean, there was definitely a reason behind all of this hype over Trump. NATO countries did agree to committing to increasing defense spending to 5% of their GDP, which is something Trump has wanted, and he called it a monumental win for the United States. You'll remember, as you mentioned, Trump has been complaining for years about the alliance not spending enough money. So they really tailored the summit to him this year, keeping it short and focused. Even on the plane ride over to the Netherlands, you know, Trump was noncommittal about Article 5 of NATO. That's the mutual defense agreement between allies, right? But after getting this win yesterday at the summit and getting all the love from NATO leaders, who praised him and praised the United States, Trump really shifted his tone on the alliance.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I left here differently. I left here saying that these people really love their countries. It's not a rip-off. And we're here to help them protect their country.
INSKEEP: That is a big shift from the way the president has spoken for the past decade about NATO.
SHIVARAM: Yeah. It really is, although the caveat here is that Trump is someone who tends to change his mind a lot. And there are still some lingering questions from allies about how reliable the U.S. is. For example, Trump was pretty fed up with Spain at the summit because Spain has said they won't be acting on the increase in defense spending that all the allies agreed to. And Trump said Spain was terrible and unfair, and he would essentially punish Spain for that decision by making them pay more in tariffs. So there's still ways that Trump is complicating these relationships with allies.
INSKEEP: NPR's Deepa Shivaram, thanks for the coverage - really appreciate it.
SHIVARAM: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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