Send in the Clown: Trump Does NATO
The Lincoln Project
The Lincoln Project
4.6 • 9.1K Ratings
🗓️ 10 July 2026
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Trump flew to Ankara for the NATO summit and turned it into an open-mic disaster. In two days he threatened to bomb Iran again, screamed at Europe for blocking his Greenland obsession, called Spain "a terrible partner," and trashed half the alliance for skipping his war — then spread his arms and declared it all a lovefest of "tremendous love." This week's Elephant in the Room, Rick Wilson breaks down the clown show.
Here's what the spin can't hide: our allies aren't laughing with him — they're backing away. Rick gets into what it actually costs when a president treats the most powerful alliance on earth like his personal roast: the credibility bleeding out, the adversaries taking notes, the friends who've quietly stopped counting on us. Greenland grabs, Iran threats, insulted partners, and a standing ovation he gave himself. It'd be hilarious if it weren't our national security.
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Rick Wilson is @TheRickWilson and Substack at therickwilson.substack.com. More from LP at www.lincolnproject.us and @ProjectLincoln.
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#Trump #NATO #Ankara #Greenland #Iran #RickWilson #LincolnProject #ElephantInTheRoom #ForeignPolicy #Politics #CurrentEvents #Podcast
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Your task will not be an easy one. |
| 0:02.5 | Your enemy is well trained, well equipped, and battlehardt. |
| 0:06.2 | There is not a liberal America and a conservative America. |
| 0:09.9 | There is the United States of America. |
| 0:14.5 | Good night and good luck. |
| 0:16.9 | Hey folks. |
| 0:18.3 | The elephant in the room this week is a clown show. |
| 0:26.6 | If you paid any attention to the NATO summit this week, you recognize that Donald Trump was a punch drunk clown, wandering from room to room, yelling at random strangers, and essentially embarrassing himself |
| 0:39.7 | and the United States of America. It doesn't surprise me. It doesn't shock me. But I noticed |
| 0:47.8 | something very interesting happened this week at the NATO summit. And this is the decline |
| 0:52.2 | and fall of Trump captured in a couple of moments that |
| 0:55.7 | you should take a little heart from. I know this show is not always like a bucket of a bucket of laughs |
| 1:00.7 | and a ray of sunshine. But what you saw this week in Ankara was a diminished Trump. |
| 1:11.0 | The old pranks, the old temper tantrums, the old |
| 1:14.7 | I'm running around the room. |
| 1:17.8 | I'll leave. |
| 1:18.7 | We'll be out of NATO. |
| 1:21.1 | These people learned to play him. |
| 1:24.7 | And they did. |
| 1:26.9 | Donald Trump's like the drunk Facebook uncle |
| 1:28.7 | he shows up at Thanksgiving |
| 1:30.2 | he's like well I read on Facebook |
... |
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