US President Donald Trump, left, talks with secretary general of NATO Mark Rutte, center, during a family photo at the 2025 NATO summit in The Hague, on Tuesday, June 24, 2025. (Haiyun Jiang/Pool Photo via AP) | AP THE HAGUE, Netherlands — The singular narrative of this NATO summit is European allies investing more in their own defense.

When President Donald Trump traveled here Tuesday for a consequential summit of NATO leaders, he arrived toting a freshly brokered ceasefire he hoped could prove to his skeptics — including at the conference — that he is a peacemaker at heart.

Past NATO summits have focused almost entirely on the war in Ukraine, now in its fourth year - but Kyiv’s bid to join the alliance has been stalled since the election of U.S. President Donald Trump. The U.