Trump promises to hit Iran 'hard' as ceasefire crumbles

**Indira Lakshmi** (0:01)
WBUR Podcasts, Boston.

**Ashley Locke** (0:08)
The unity in that room was incredible.

**Sean Wheelock** (0:12)
The, yeah, really a love.

**Ashley Locke** (0:13)
It was sort of pretty wild.

**Sean Wheelock** (0:16)
There was a love in that room that was great.

**Ashley Locke** (0:19)
President Trump closes out the NATO Summit with big feelings. It's Wednesday, July 8th, and this is Here and Now Anytime from NPR and WBUR Boston. I'm Ashley Locke.
Today on the show, the FIFA World Cup is now down to just eight teams. And Emmy nominations are in for this year's best TV shows.

**Eric Deggans** (0:41)
There's all of these important people watching us right now.

**Ashley Locke** (0:45)
What if we trip?

**Eric Deggans** (0:46)
What if we fall?

**Jon Finer** (0:47)
What if I have a wardrobe malfunction?

**Ashley Locke** (0:49)
But first, oil prices rose and stocks fell this morning after President Trump declared a ceasefire with Iran over and vowed to escalate strikes on Iran tonight. At the NATO summit in Turkey, Trump again insisted the US should control Greenland. He slammed European allies as hopeless, threatened trade ties, and scolded those that didn't support the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran. Trump though redoubled his commitment to Ukraine in its war with Russia and the core mission of NATO.
Jon Finer was a senior national security advisor in the Biden and Obama administrations. He joins Indira Lakshmanand to unpack what happened at the summit.

**Indira Lakshmi** (1:32)
So sitting next to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Trump seemed to go above and beyond a request from Ukraine for more Patriot missiles. Let's listen.

**Sean Wheelock** (1:42)
So one of the things we're going to be talking about is you'll, we're going to give a license to you to make Patriots. That's pretty cool, right?

**Ashley Locke** (1:50)
This way you can't complain that we're not giving them enough.

**Sean Wheelock** (1:52)
I'd say make them yourself.

**Indira Lakshmi** (1:54)
So Jon, Ukraine has been using Patriot missiles since 2023, a year after Russia invaded. It seems like a big step to let them manufacture their own. And Trump said that the company that produces the missiles hasn't been informed of the deal. What should we make of this?

**Jon Finer** (2:12)
So look, I think it's a big and relatively welcome step, but I say relatively because there is a lot we still don't know. We don't know, for example, how long it will take to get these production lines up and running. Ukraine obviously has an immediate need that can be met by the provision of patriot interceptors that have already been manufactured, but countries, including the United States, are unwilling for now to part with more of these given the threat that exists both from Iran in the Middle East and from Russia in Europe. And so as a medium term solution to this problem, potentially, Trump seems to have licensed the company that makes patriots to produce this capability in Ukraine. We just don't know how soon, how fast, and whether the quality will be of the same standard of the patriots that are manufactured in the United States.

**Indira Lakshmi** (3:00)
Okay, well, briefly, might this be the security guarantee that Trump says he's trying to negotiate for Ukraine?

**Jon Finer** (3:07)
So I don't think the provision of patriot missiles or even the ability to manufacture patriot missiles is the security guarantee that Ukraine is looking for. What Ukraine is looking for is a clear commitment militarily from countries in Europe and ideally from the United States to come to its defense in a more meaningful way should there be a peace agreement that Russia ultimately violates. And I think that the terms of that are still very much under negotiation between the training government and the allies that are supporting it.

**Indira Lakshmi** (3:37)
All right, Jon, there was a moment when Trump mistakenly called President Zelenskyy President Putin and then he made a joke of it, asking reporters what questions he should ask the Russian president if they were together. And one journalist responded with this suggested question.

**Ashley Locke** (3:53)
When will he end this war?

**Robin Young** (3:55)
That's a good question.

**Sean Wheelock** (3:57)
I don't think I've ever answered that question.

**Robin Young** (3:59)
I've been asking that question.

**Indira Lakshmi** (4:01)
So it sounds like Trump is being facetious there, but being serious, Trump spoke with Putin on July 4th for nearly 90 minutes. Now he's giving Ukraine the right to build its own Patriot missiles. Has the US made any progress towards ending this war?

**Jon Finer** (4:15)
The reason the war is not over is because Russia is unwilling to stop waging war on Ukraine or to reach a settlement on terms that are just or acceptable to the Ukrainian government. And until there is enough pressure on Russia to do that, the war is not going to end. Obviously, we've all been reading about how on the battlefield in recent weeks, Ukraine has been making significant gains for the first time in many years. That is increasing the pressure on Russia.