President Donald Trump said during Oval Office remarks on Monday that European leaders "jokingly call me the president of Europe, which is an honor," presenting the quip as evidence of strengthened U.S. influence abroad. He referred to a gathering at the White House last week with counterparts including Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky, France’s Emmanuel Macron, the U.K.’s Keir Starmer and Germany’s Friedrich Merz, where the war in Ukraine dominated the agenda. Trump also cited the June NATO summit in The Hague—where allies agreed to raise defense spending to 5% of GDP by 2035—as further proof of what he called unprecedented respect for the United States. The president, who has long pressed NATO members to boost military budgets and has threatened to withhold protection from laggards, said the pledges and the recent flurry of consultations show the United States is now "the most respected nation anywhere in the world by far."