Trump backs Ukraine Patriot production as NATO pledges aid and unity

Donald Trump said he would give Ukraine a license to make Patriot missiles and interceptors after a summit of NATO leaders in Ankara, Turkey, even as he lashed out at allies over defense spending and threatened to cut off trade with Spain. He later said there had been "a lot of unity" and "love" in the room, while NATO closed the meeting with an "ironclad commitment" to collective defense under Article 5 and a pledge of €70 billion, about $80 billion, in military assistance to Ukraine for 2026.

Trump singled out Spain as a "terrible partner" because it had not committed to NATO's new goal of spending 5% of GDP on defense by 2035. That target was adopted at the alliance's summit in The Hague last year, when members agreed to lift annual core defense and security-related spending to that level by 2035. Trump has kept up pressure on European allies, accusing them of doing too little on defense and of not backing the United States in the war in Iran.

The Patriot message landed alongside Volodymyr Zelenskyy's renewed push for air-defense systems as Russian missile attacks intensified. Recent strikes on Kyiv killed more than 50 civilians, and Ukraine failed to intercept a single ballistic missile in one recent attack. Trump told Zelenskyy, "This way you can't complain that we're not giving them enough," and added, "Make them yourself."

Trump said he had not yet informed Raytheon or Lockheed Martin, the companies that make the Patriot system, about the idea. He did not say whether he meant production inside Ukraine or elsewhere in Europe.