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.