MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
The U.S.-Iran ceasefire is over. That's what President Trump just said from Turkey this morning. He was asked by reporters after the U.S. struck Iran overnight once again. U.S. Central Command said it launched the strikes to impose heavy costs for the attacks on commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.
A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Iran said today it responded by targeting Bahrain and Kuwait. This is all happening while President Trump is not that far away from that region, attending a NATO summit in Turkey.
MARTIN: NPR White House correspondent Danielle Kurtzleben is in Ankara, traveling with the president and is with us now. Good morning, Danielle.
DANIELLE KURTZLEBEN, BYLINE: Hey there, Michel.
MARTIN: So what exactly did President Trump say this morning?
KURTZLEBEN: Well, he was blunt. He said he considers the ceasefire finished, and he had more harsh words for Iran's leadership after that. Let's listen.
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I think it's over. I don't want to deal with them anymore. They're scum.
KURTZLEBEN: However, he didn't quite say that talks are over. When a reporter asked him if talks would continue, he said this.
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TRUMP: I don't care. They can talk, but I think they're wasting their time. They're a bunch of lying guys.
KURTZLEBEN: So long story short, things are pretty unclear right now. Now, meanwhile, Trump also criticized fellow NATO members in Europe for not assisting the U.S. more in their war with Iran, as he has done in the past. For example, he said, as he also has in the past, that he wants to cut off trade with Spain, though it's not clear how that would work. Now, all of this said, President Trump often changes his mind, so we're going to be watching to see what more he says about this ceasefire surprise announcement.
MARTIN: And this comes in the middle of what was already not an easy summit, so tell us a bit more about that, about the context of all this.
KURTZLEBEN: Right. I mean, there's just a - been a lot of tension between Trump and NATO for quite a while now. Now, it's worth mentioning that this morning, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte praised Trump for his action against Iran. But these strikes extend a conflict that European countries just didn't want to be a part of. And now Trump, of course, has said that he considers the ceasefire dead.
Now, add on to all of that the other Trump-NATO baggage, which is considerable. The White House had gone into this summit prepared to continue pushing NATO countries to spend more on defense, as they have been pushing for throughout his presidency, and Trump this morning also repeated that he wants the U.S. to take over Greenland, so taking territory from a fellow NATO member, which doesn't go over well with other NATO members.
MARTIN: But it does seem as though Trump has revived efforts to end the Ukraine war, recently speaking with Russian President Vladimir Putin. And I understand that he is meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. What can you tell us about those discussions?
KURTZLEBEN: Well, that's happening this afternoon, actually, in a couple hours now. The president is scheduled to meet with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. But it's not clear where things stand here. President Trump just before this trip, like you said, spoke to both Zelenskyy and Putin, and he came away saying that he feels really optimistic about ending that war. But when reporters asked him yesterday about why he feels so good - for example, what changed his mind? - he didn't list any specifics.
Instead, he said then, and he said today as well, that the war affects Europe more than the U.S. and that it just doesn't affect the U.S. that much, the idea being that Ukraine is just so far away. So Trump's message here seems to be, hey, we don't have to help. I just want to. So this afternoon after that meeting, we're going to see what more he has to say about Ukraine. He has a press conference this afternoon, and you can imagine news might come from that.
MARTIN: That is NPR's Danielle Kurtzleben, traveling with the president in Turkey. Danielle, thank you.
KURTZLEBEN: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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