MAKING TRUMP FEEL GOOD
The summit itself was light on the sort of contentious and detailed policy discussions that have historically bored and angered Trump.
Instead, it was reduced to a series of photo opportunities and speeches in which other leaders lavished praise on Trump. Lithuania’s President Gitanas Nauseda even suggested the alliance ought to copy Trump’s political movement by adopting the phrase “make NATO great again”.
NATO leaders aren’t the only ones trying this trick. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has had a go at it too. Starmer has made sure that Trump will be the first US president to make a second state visit to the United Kingdom. He described the honour in Trump-like terms: “This has never happened before. It’s so incredible. It will be historic.”
After Trump announced global trade tariffs earlier in the year, Starmer was the first leader to give Trump a much-needed victory by reaching a framework trade agreement. But it worked both ways, with Starmer able to land a political victory too.
In his first term, flattery was also seen as a tool to be used to get Trump onside. Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy tried it in phone conversations with the US president, calling him a “great teacher” from whom he learned “skills and knowledge”.
Flattery and compliance clearly have their uses. Trump is extremely sensitive to criticism and susceptible to praise, however hyperbolic and transparent it might be. Buttering him up may be an effective way to get him to back off.
But it doesn’t achieve much else. At the NATO summit, an opportunity was missed to make progress on issues of real importance, such as how to better support Ukraine in its war against Russia or to better coordinate European defence spending.
A summit dedicated to the sole aim of making Trump feel good is one with very limited aims indeed. All it does is push the difficult decisions forward for another day.
