U.S. Army vehicles are displayed during the Army's 250th birthday festival in Washington, D.C., on June 14, 2025. A parade of American-made military equipment is among proposals from the Atlantic Council think tank ahead of the upcoming NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, as President Donald Trump considers withdrawing from the alliance. (Justin Rachal/U.S. Army)
A parade of American-made tanks, missiles and other hardware could help save the day when President Donald Trump travels to Turkey this summer for a high-stakes summit with NATO’s future on the line, experts say.
In July, NATO heads of state will meet in Ankara for an annual gathering, only this time they face the prospect of a summit where the overarching goal will be to walk out with the U.S.-founded alliance still intact.
Trump, who blasted allies in Europe for not assisting with his war against Iran, has warned he may withdraw the United States from NATO because of the dispute.
One possible way for NATO to avoid that is to embrace the kind of military pageantry Trump has expressed a fondness for in the past, said John Deni, an Atlantic Council expert.
Such an event would show Trump what Europe’s increased investments in defense look like in practice, he said in a five-point plan the think tank compiled ahead of the summit.
“A parade of military equipment through Ankara, followed by a static display of the same, could form a central part of what should in any case be a very short official summit program,” Deni said.
That would send a deterrent signal to Russia and reassure allied publics, Deni argued. Just as importantly, it would let Trump see firsthand the results of his burden-shifting efforts, promote the U.S. defense industry and link him to a vivid display of American military strength, Deni added.
It’s unclear whether allies are entertaining such an idea, but NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte was in Ankara this week to meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and lay the groundwork for the gathering.
NATO was founded more than 80 years ago to deter Soviet aggression in Europe and ensure collective defense among its members. Those goals have taken on new urgency in the wake of two Kremlin invasions of Ukraine since 2014.
Traditionally, NATO summits have been mundane affairs, with agreements and communiques worked out well in advance.
Trump, however, has used past gatherings to bring his criticisms to the fore. During his first term, he publicly dressed down leaders and behind closed doors threatened to pull the U.S. out of NATO.
To avoid a replay, analysts say allies should look for ways to address various Trump concerns by following in the footsteps of last year’s summit, when member countries agreed to meet Trump’s demand to increase defense spending to 5% of gross domestic product.
European allies could use the Ankara summit to ease tensions with Washington by offering practical proposals on security questions around Greenland and the Strait of Hormuz without entirely conceding to U.S. demands, wrote Atlantic Council experts James Townsend and Philippe Dickinson.
That could mean turning NATO’s new Arctic Sentry initiative into a security mission with concrete troop deployments, exercises and capability investments in the High North, while also establishing a long-term, NATO-led maritime mission to ensure shipping security through the Strait of Hormuz.
Taken together, those steps would show NATO taking on more operational responsibility, giving the White House a visible win, the analysts said.
Western European allies also should use the summit to commit to more substantial troop deployments on NATO’s eastern flank in countries such as Poland, the Baltic states and Romania, analysts said.
Currently, U.S. forces outnumber western European troop contributions for such missions.
“Clearly, if the United States is willing to deploy such forces across the Atlantic to defend NATO’s east, Western Europe can and should do more,” Atlantic Council expert Ian Brzezinski said.
Other ideas include setting up a planning group that would set timetables for when the capabilities now dominated by the United States should shift to European responsibility, thereby signaling the alliance’s readiness to make NATO more European-led.
