Donald Trump's hidden allies at the NATO summit: Ranked

Donald Trump’s hidden allies at the NATO summit centers on the idea that the U.S.-led alliance’s leverage depends not only on public leaders, but also on institutions and industries that shape how expensive and renegotiable NATO can appear. Ahead of a two-day NATO summit in Ankara hosted by Turkey starting July 7, the article argues that Article 5 remains the core bargain and that members are committed, including through Trump’s influence, to a 5% defense-investment target by 2035. It also notes Trump’s stated view that Europe and Canada should carry more of the costs. The piece ranks 10 “hidden allies” that may strengthen Trump’s bargaining position, including Italy’s Giorgia Meloni as a cautionary example and U.S. technology gatekeepers connected to NATO’s newer dependence on data, cloud capacity, software and autonomous systems. It cites analysis that Amazon, Google and Microsoft account for roughly 70% of European cloud services, as described by Britain’s Chatham House.