Trump heads to Turkey for NATO summit as Russia attacks Ukraine

President Donald Trump is headed to Turkey for a summit of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, as the alliance is squeezed by Russia’s continuing military aggression in Ukraine and America’s growing insistence that NATO members quickly beef up their defense spending.

Those pressing concerns come on top of lingering controversies surrounding the U.S.’ war against Iran and its prior attempts to take over Greenland, a territory of NATO member Denmark.

Trump is a central figure in all of those issues.

“I can imagine so many issues where this could go wrong,” Michael O’Hanlon of the Brookings Institution told CNBC’s “The Exchange” on Monday in a preview of the summit.

A positive outcome for the gathering would include NATO making headway on sharing its military spending burden, and finding more ways to put pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin, O’Hanlon said.

Progress on the former goal appears to be within reach: NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in May said that the task ahead is “to turn Allied commitments into concrete results” at the summit.

But the prospect of a breakdown in talks looms large, as Trump has frequently vented about NATO, including its members’ refusal to heed the U.S. calls for help clearing the economically vital Strait of Hormuz during its campaign against Iran.

“I don’t expect great things, but even incremental progress and no blow-up would be welcome,” O’Hanlon said.

Trump is set to arrive in Ankara on Tuesday afternoon after departing the U.S. on Monday evening, White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly told reporters in a call previewing the trip. He is slated to meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan upon arrival, then participate in a bilateral meeting with him after an arrival ceremony, followed by a NATO leaders’ dinner.

After a “family photo” with the leaders on Wednesday morning, Trump will join a working session, then hold bilats with Zelenskyy and Syrian President Ahmed Hussein al-Sharaa.

Trump will hold a press conference, then depart Ankara for the White House, Kelly said.

On Sunday, Russia bombarded Ukraine’s capital city of Kyiv with dozens of missiles and hundreds of strike drones, killing at least 11 and injuring scores more, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and media reports.

The attacks on the eve of the summit, which Zelenskyy is slated to attend, ensured that the war will be a pressing focus for the 32-member alliance, who have already labeled Putin’s war in Ukraine the “gravest threat to Euro-Atlantic security in decades.”

One day before the strikes, Trump and Putin held a “business-like and constructive” phone call that was initiated by the U.S. and lasted nearly 90 minutes, the Kremlin said.

Trump stressed in the call that Russia and America could realize their “colossal potential for mutually beneficial cooperation” once the war in Ukraine ends, while Putin portrayed a rosy picture of Russian military efforts as the “real situation on the battlefield,” according to Putin aide Yuri Ushakov.

Trump also spoke that day with Zelenskyy, who later declared that the strikes on Kyiv underscore Ukraine’s desperate need for additional military aid — especially from the U.S.

“The United States and Europe have enough strength to stop this terror,” Zelenskyy said early Monday morning.

He hopes to leave the NATO summit with commitments from the member states to ramp up support for Ukraine’s air defenses. He is set to hold a bilateral meeting with Trump in Turkey on Wednesday afternoon, according to the White House.

But Trump, who has previously clashed with Zelenskyy and praised Putin, may not agree that the solution to the four-year war is to further strengthen Ukraine.

When Trump was asked Monday morning why Putin apparently felt no pressure to avoid hostilities following their call, he insisted that the Russian leader is indeed seeking to end the war.

“I think he does feel pressure,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “He wants to end it, and Ukraine wants to end it, and we’re in talks, and we’ll see if we can get it ended.”

“Putin wants it to end, I will tell you that very strongly,” Trump went on, adding that the two men had a “good call.”

“And President Zelenskyy actually wants it to end now. And we’re going to be going to NATO, and we’re going to be talking about it, and I think we’re going to get it. I think we’re going to get it ended,” he said.

O’Hanlon, of Brookings, told CNBC, “I do not think there’s any great evidence that Putin is closer to doing a deal. I hope President Trump’s right, but I haven’t seen proof yet.”

While NATO members already agreed last year to increase their spending to 5% of GDP from 2% by 2035, the Trump administration is demanding that the countries scale up to that target as soon as possible.

“The target is that Europe takes over the conventional defense of the European continent,” Matthew Whitaker, U.S. ambassador to NATO, told CNBC earlier Monday. “We’re not going away, we’re just doing less.”

A senior U.S. official, in a call previewing the summit, told reporters to expect “billions of dollars in announcements” on the sidelines in Ankara.