Nato leaders survived another nerve-racking summit with Donald Trump and the 77-year-old defence alliance lives to fight another day, proving its durability against Atlantic storms. But it will never feel safe as long as the unpredictable, vengeful and ruthlessly transactional US president is in the White House.

As usual, Trump stole all the headlines at the annual summit, with a mixture of Nato-bashing and implausible threats to take control of Greenland and cut trade with Spain. He declared the ceasefire with Iran dead and called Iranian leaders “scum” as US warplanes bombed Iranian targets along the strait of Hormuz. Pitted against such irresistible clickbait, no Nato communique stood a chance of public attention.

The more important question is which show Vladimir Putin was watching – season 94 of Trump Breathes Fire at Nato, or the crisp, upbeat Ankara summit declaration vowing “ironclad commitment to collective defence under article 5” and to the transatlantic bond.

The risk is that Putin, bogged down in an unwinnable war in Ukraine that he blames not on his own imperial aggression but on Nato expansionism, pays more attention to Trump’s wrecking ball than to the solemn pronouncements of allied unity and resolve. Who could blame him if he concluded that this US president – whatever the communique says – would not lift a finger to defend a Baltic ally if........

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