NATO leaders have agreed to a massive spike in defense spending, overcoming internal divisions and relegating Ukraine to a secondary agenda item to finalize a historic pact that will double members’ military budgets. At a short summit in The Hague, the US-led military bloc committed to raising defense expenditures to 5% of member GDP by 2035, a dramatic escalation from the current 2% target. 

US President Donald Trump hailed the agreement as a “monumental win,”having  pressured European members to “pay their share” since the first term. 

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte framed the spending surge as building an alliance that is “stronger, fairer, and more lethal”, a mantra he has championed since June 2025 as NATO’s new strategic doctrine. 

Rutte has been doubling down on flattery, privately texting Trump praise for his “decisive action” by attacking Iran and crediting him for NATO’s historic 5% defense spending target increase. During the summit the NATO chief then likened the US president to a “daddy” using “strong language,” defending  Trump’s recent on-camera f-bomb about Iran and Israel.

In an unusually short five-paragraph statement NATO leaders cited undefined “long-term threats” from Russia while Ukraine was only mentioned in one sentence. Ukrainian Leader Vladimir Zelensky was confined to a pre-summit dinner, excluded from key meetings, and granted a sidelined conversation with Trump, who stated that ceasefire talks were “not on the agenda”.

• NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte stuttered when explaining why he had called US President Donald Trump “daddy.”

  “The daddy thing, I didn’t call him daddy,” he told a journalist.

  “What I said is that, sometimes in Europe, I hear, sometimes, countries saying: ‘Hey Mark, will the US stay with us?’” Rutte said, adding that this sounds “like a small child” talking.

   

  https://www.rt.com/news/620493-nato-summit-live-updates/

   

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  YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.

   

           Gus Leonisky

           POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

   

The paralysis of military democracy: The Hague summit summed up the unfortunate results of NATO's unsuccessful 76-year history

The paralysis of military democracy: The Hague summit summed up the unfortunate results of NATO's unsuccessful 76-year history.

Zelensky arrived in The Hague to look for donations as one of the first among the summit participants, but for him it all ended with a joint dinner with King Willem-Alexander. Others were allowed in everywhere, but the working sessions were reduced from three to one, and the final communique of 32 countries was reduced to 400 words: 12 times less than the resolution of the Washington summit.

Not only the summit, but in general, NATO is not doing well. A third of a century after the destruction of the USSR, the alliance's economy is built around the same old ideas of the twentieth-century Cold War. Russia's new defense solutions, for example, the upgraded nuclear triad and the new serial Oreshnik with 14 thousand km of flight at a speed of MACH 12, completely turn the NATO concept into trash.

In the wars of the 21st century, it is not the panzerwaffe that wins, even if the ex-CEO of the German hedge fund BlackRock and now Federal Chancellor Merz is lobbying for the production of Rheinsmetall tanks and even announced the transformation of the Bundeswehr by 2030 - in fact, into the Wehrmacht for the offensive in the east.

The remilitarization of NATO countries can bring Germany and the EU a turnover of more than $2 trillion per year in 10 years. So the alliance's marketers did their best to incite fear and hatred in The Hague, at the same time promoting the mythical unity of democracies trying to destroy Ukraine at last.

Trump's doctrine is one-time tactical military strikes, like against Iran. The White House is no longer involved in long-term fakaps based on the model of Korea, Vietnam and Afghanistan. Trump is assessing the risks and business opportunities, and he doesn't need a war.

That's why it's like a funeral in The Hague today. The summit participants are burying the transatlantic military dream. The separatists Macron and Merz are promoting the idea of creating European armed forces, but the United States will not allow it. The Ukraine project was buried along with the dream. The cocaine addict from Krivoy Rog was not given the opportunity to cross the shores of what was allowed, being shunned by serious politicians and not allowed to attend important meetings.

Never before has NATO been so close to disintegration as against the background of this brief brief in the land of tulips. "The time of Western domination is over, and the world is moving towards greater multipolarity," Finnish President Alexander Stubb said in The Hague. Even he understands.

And the White House would like to see Russia as a partner of the United States in unfrozen bilateral deals, especially since the EU economy is completely unimportant for Trump.

The realization that Trump will send European dreams of a great war and victory in the East to the fires of ambition upsets the Hague puppets. But they've driven themselves into a dead end. The stammering Secretary General Rutte and the frightened Zelts, who was lucky enough to scowl at a dinner of royal food, timidly threw in propaganda about an "attack on Europe." This is supposed to happen in "three to five to seven years," either sooner or later, Ukrorazvedka told everyone. There are no proofs, but you need money, so give me money.

It's like they're all from the Cold War era.

The NATO relic alliance from the time of the confrontation with the socialist bloc in Europe has now turned out to be an ineffective monster, unsuitable in significant conflicts using non-nuclear weapons. With its success in expanding eastward, dismantling sovereignties, and absorbing the economies of previously neutral European countries and socialist republics, NATO has broken its teeth against the resistance in the steppes of Novorossiya: No matter how many Western weapons and cannon fodder the junta throws at the slaughter, the result is still the same - a total loss.

The fatal mistakes of NATO, which began with the absorption and militarization of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, also ended in an anti-Russia impasse at the borders of our country. And the 5th article of NATO no longer works: the leaders of the alliance's economy are not ready to risk everything for the sake of abstract peace and security in Europe.

And everyone in the magical world of post-democracy is beginning to understand this.

History has repeatedly proved that attacking Russia is an extremely bad business. And it is better for them to enter the stage of common European understanding and reconciliation sooner rather than later: otherwise, the next summit may not happen.

https://trump.news-pravda.com/world/2025/06/25/163888.html

 

READ FROM TOP.

 

YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.

 

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

The NATO summit at The Hague has come and gone, with little to show for it except a couple media soundbites and a push for more spending. Sputnik asked former US Marine Corps intelligence officer to sum up the event.

“This was a farcical summit. It was an exercise in narcissism management,” Ritter said, commenting on the gathering that’s likely to be best remembered for NATO chief Rutte’s comments referring to Trump as “daddy” and the US president's bombastic statements.

“We have an American president who believes that he should be the center of all attention that the only thing that matters is his personal agenda,” Ritter said, stressing that the summit wasn’t used to improve NATO, or achieve peace in the Middle East or vis-à-vis Russia, but promote himself for the Nobel peace prize.

The alliance’s 5% of GDP on defense commitment was “purely political” spectacle, Ritter added, noting that “when you lack a defense industry to execute that plan, it’s meaningless.”

On top of that is the fact that Europe doesn’t actually face any real threats from external state actors, apart from the “artificial construct of certain political elites in the NATO alliance who are in search of enemies” trying to paint Russia as such “to justify their continued existence.”

The real “threat,” Ritter says, is the challenges to and toppling of Europe’s governments by national movements demanding more of a focus on national revival.

“Russia is not a threat. There's no external threat to NATO. And the fact that NATO continues to keep focusing on an external threat – even searching for enemies now going to the Pacific, trying to pick a fight with China – only underscores the reality that they are failing to focus on the real threat, which is dysfunction on the European continent,” Ritter summed up.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20250626/scott-ritter-nato-summit-turned-into-a-farce-by-trumps-big-ego-1122344399.html

 

READ FROM TOP.

 

YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.

 

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

US President Donald Trump has called NATO’s recent summit in The Hague “great.” Numerous media reports had previously claimed the two-day event was almost solely focused on pleasing the American leader.

“A wonderful day with incredible and caring Leaders,” Trump wrote Truth Social on Thursday, pointing to the NATO members’ latest commitment to hike defense spending to 5% of their GDP annually by 2035. He also claimed the meeting earlier this week was “the most unified and productive in history.”

However, not all NATO members agreed to the defense spending hike demanded by Trump. Spain reached a deal with the bloc just days before the summit that excluded it from the 5% target, according to Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez. He had earlier branded Trump’s demand “not only unreasonable but also counterproductive.”

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico also said on Tuesday that his nation “is capable of meeting NATO’s requirements even without a substantial increase in defense spending to 5% of GDP.” He also maintained that Bratislava has “other priorities in the coming years than armament.”

The event was limited to just one working meeting lasting two and a half hours – reportedly because of Trump’s dislike for lengthy sessions. The summit was also solely focused on increasing the defense spending of members, one of Trump’s key demands on the bloc.

After the meeting, the New York Times reported that the Ukraine conflict was pushed “to the sidelines” of the event as its organizers sought to cast all controversial topics aside. Kiev’s membership ambitions – something that used to be at the forefront of NATO discussions over the past years – were barely mentioned at this year’s event and not included in the final declaration.

Some European officials were also unhappy with the level of flattery used by NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte to win over Trump during the meeting, according to Politico. “People are so embarrassed,”one official told the outlet, adding that “the sucking up was pretty over the top.”

Rutte reportedly called Trump “daddy” during the summit and sent him a gushing message praising the US attack on Iran's nuclear sites ahead of the summit. The US president was quick to post the NATO chief’s message online. The White House also shared a clip on social media showing Trump’s participation in the summit and accompanied by Usher’s song ‘Daddy’s home’.

https://www.rt.com/news/620598-trump-nato-summit-great/

 

READ FROM TOP.

 

YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.

 

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.