Trump has spent a tumultuous week on the international stage, stirring outrage among soccer fans with his intervention in the World Cup, castigating allies at the NATO summit and resuming air strikes on Iran. 

The president told reporters he thought the ceasefire with the Islamic Republic was “over,” threatened to seize Iran’s main oil export facility and said, “I’m not sure I want to make a deal with them.” 

The week’s events had a common theme: Trump’s willingness to challenge established institutions, whether international organizations or longtime alliances, and decisions he disagrees with. 

After a referee sent off U.S. striker Folarin Balogun during a World Cup knockout stage match, Trump called FIFA President Gianni Infantino to attempt to reverse the one-game suspension. Trump was successful but the U.S. lost to Belgium anyway.

Trump said he’d looked into the background of the referee who made the controversial call and said without evidence that “he was a little bit suspect if you check his past.” I asked the White House what Trump meant by that, but his spokespeople did not provide any additional information.  

Then it was on to Turkey aboard his new Qatar-donated Air Force One, where he threatened to cut off trade with Spain, renewed calls for the U.S. to take over Greenland and criticized NATO allies’ defense spending.

But before leaving, he praised the “unity” of the NATO alliance. The U.S. even reaffirmed NATO’s Article 5 principle, that an attack on one member nation is an attack on all. Trump has previously cast doubt on that provision.  

The turnabout was conspicuous and gave Trump an opening to take credit for structural changes within NATO. Member nations have plans to significantly increase their annual defense spending, something for which Trump has long advocated.  

Trump's often-contentious relationship with NATO allies has at times given him leverage to push for changes that other U.S. presidents struggled to secure.  

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte told reporters to “acknowledge when praise is due,” and that “I think we should praise Donald Trump for the fact that NATO is so much stronger.” My colleagues Humeyra Pamuk and Gram Slattery were on the ground in Ankara covering the summit.  

The week illustrates what many of Trump’s supporters admire about the president and his MAGA movement. Since launching his 2016 campaign for his first White House run, Trump has tapped into a deep dissatisfaction among some voters with the global standing of the U.S. and some of the norms that have underpinned its system of government and diplomacy. 

Whether challenging FIFA over a red card, criticizing longtime allies or resuming hostilities with Iran, Trump again demonstrated this week an enduring ability to put himself at the center of events.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is rejecting calls to negotiate peace with Kyiv, three sources close to the Kremlin told Reuters, with Ukraine's recent drone strikes on Russia's oil refineries and ports strengthening his resolve to keep fighting for now. Two of the sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that Putin was instead likely to escalate the conflict, now well into its fifth year. 

This newsletter was edited by Ross Colvin and Alistair Bell and produced by Rawan Yaghi.