GEOFF BENNETT: Welcome to the "News Hour."

Tonight, the U.S.

is carrying out a second straight night of strikes on Iran.

The U.S.

military says it launched attacks to degrade Iran's ability to threaten freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz.

AMNA NAWAZ: Iranian media is reporting the sounds of explosions along the coast of the strait and the Gulf of Oman.

President Trump telegraphed these strikes earlier today at the NATO summit in Ankara, where Nick Schifrin is reporting for us once again.

So, Nick, what can you tell us about these strikes?

NICK SCHIFRIN: Amna, tonight, President Trump says that he is bombing Iran in -- quote -- "retribution" for attacks by Iran on ships, -- for targeting ships transiting through the Strait of Hormuz.

But he also said earlier today that he did not want the war to restart.

Now, tonight, a U.S.

official tells me that they are targeting Iranian radar, missiles and air defense and other Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps targets.

Now, Iran has tried to continue to have a de facto control over the Strait of Hormuz by attacking these ships that are not asking for Iranian permission, not using an Iranian corridor beforehand.

And, in turn, the U.S.

military is trying to use these strikes to convince Iran to stop doing that.

Now, as you said, President Trump did telegraph these strikes earlier today at the NATO conference here in Ankara.

He's also whiplashed between saying he wanted the cease-fire -- he's declaring the cease-fire to be dead, but then also saying that he didn't want any kind of long-term conflict with Iran.

And that -- zigzags really define his comments not only about Iran, but also about U.S.'

NATO allies.

Today, in Turkey, surrounded by allies he'd spent days and months insulting, threatening, and scolding, President Trump declared they were once again in love.

DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: I just want to say there was tremendous love in that room.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Today was typical Trump.

DONALD TRUMP: Spain is a wasted cause.

We don't want to do any trade business with Spain anymore, by the way.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Starting with snubs and threats impossible to impose and reopening an old wound.

DONALD TRUMP: Greenland is very important for the United States, but it's not important for Denmark.

NICK SCHIFRIN: That drew this response from the Danish prime minister: METTE FREDERIKSEN, Prime Minister of Denmark: We are ready to defend every inch of NATO, including our own territory.

NICK SCHIFRIN: But the day ended with praise.

DONALD TRUMP: Very smart people, and they have a lot of good in their heart, not evil, good.

And they're doing a great job for their country.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Today's whiplash wasn't only reserved for NATO.

MAN: Whoa.

NICK SCHIFRIN: On Iran, after last night's American strikes that one U.S.

official called turning up the volume, this morning, President Trump declared the cease-fire dead.

DONALD TRUMP: I think it's over.

I don't want to deal with them anymore.

There's scum.

You know what scum is?

They're scum.

They're sick people.

There's something wrong with them.

They're cuckoo.

As far as I'm concerned, it's over.

NICK SCHIFRIN: He ended the summit suggesting tonight's strikes are not intended to restart the war.

DONALD TRUMP: I think it's going to go very quickly.

They hit a couple of ships.

And so we hit them much harder.

When they hit, we hit 10 times harder.

We hit much harder than they do.

Anything that happens, it's going to happen very fast.

We're not looking for long term.

NICK SCHIFRIN: But Iran is trying to create long-term leverage.

Earlier today, it launched missiles at U.S.

bases, sparking air raid sirens in Kuwait, which hosts U.S.

troops, and yesterday attacking three tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, including one that signaled mayday.

Iran's chief negotiator today warned: "The era of bullying and extortion is over.

It leads nowhere.

We don't fold."

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, Ukrainian President: I think that now initiative moved to our hands.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Ukraine hasn't folded either.

And if there is any leader who's felt the president's whiplash, it's Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

DONALD TRUMP: We have developed a good relationship.

It's hard to believe, right, from the Oval Office to now.

You're gambling with World War III.

NICK SCHIFRIN: From last February's Oval Office train wreck to an October demand the war end no matter the cost to Ukraine.

DONALD TRUMP: They should stop right now at the battle lines.

Go home, stop killing people, and be done.

NICK SCHIFRIN: But, today, President Trump praised Ukraine's long-range attacks on Russian energy targets.

DONALD TRUMP: It's an escalation.

But it's also an escalation that can help lead to an end.

NICK SCHIFRIN: And today, for the first time, President Trump vowed to help Ukraine build its own Patriot air defense missiles.

DONALD TRUMP: We're going to give a license to you to make Patriots.

That's pretty cool, right?

This way, you can't complain that we're not giving them enough.

I would say, make them yourself.

We haven't informed the company of that yet, but that will -- that will work out all right.

NICK SCHIFRIN: It's all going to work out, perhaps a description of some of President Trump's approaches to foreign policy.

We don't know how Iran will work out tonight, but multiple officials telling me that NATO at least is in a better place than they thought it was just yesterday.

AMNA NAWAZ: Nick, from your reporting on the ground, how did the president's public criticisms of NATO compare to what you learned he's saying in private?

NICK SCHIFRIN: I think it's a key question, Amna, because what he is saying in private, I'm told, is very different than what he is saying in public.

And I talked to multiple people who attended the NAC meeting tonight, the NATO leaders meeting here in Ankara, and they all said that he was very respectful.

He was patient.

He listened to everyone in the room.

And one official told me that, at the end of the meeting, he turned to the whole group and said what we heard him say in public: "I feel a lot of love in this room tonight."

And perhaps that what is leading to some of the comments that I and others are really getting from leaders who were in that room.

Baiba Braze, the Latvian foreign minister, I interviewed her earlier today.

She said there was a consensus in the room about more European spending.

And we heard from the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, earlier today, who called it an important step toward a more European NATO, and that President Trump -- quote -- "showed great empathy even to smaller NATO countries."

But, look, President Trump's comments do have an impact.

A senior European official told me that all of the comments about Greenland, for example, the U.S.

needing to control Greenland, would make some kind of U.S.-Greenland-Denmark deal less likely.

And there's still concern about a U.S.

transition or drawdown out of Europe, trying to get Europe to defend itself conventionally, that Europe will not be able to backfill what the U.S.

is going to withdraw from Europe.

Take a listen to Belgium's defense minister, Theo Francken.

THEO FRANCKEN, Belgian Defense Minister: I think that's there is a major concern about the security architecture of Europe, of NATO, our alliance, the strength of our alliance.

We cannot be divided.

We should -- we have to show unity.

United we stand.

Divided we fall.

And this is a major concern.

And that remains to be the major points on the political level.

NICK SCHIFRIN: And just to make sure, concern that, what, that the United States will leave Europe vulnerable?

THEO FRANCKEN: No, that's there's on both sides of the Atlantic so much miscomprehension that we're not even talking of having dialogue and that we're not listening one to each other.

NICK SCHIFRIN: You don't think there's dialogue and there's no listening right now?

THEO FRANCKEN: There's a lot of dialogue, but there's also a lot of frustration from both sides of the Atlantic.

NICK SCHIFRIN: That frustration, Francken did say that Secretary-General Mark Rutte was trying to reduce the frustration in the room, trying to coordinate the U.S.

drawdown from Europe, so that the U.S.

coordinate it with allies.

But, Amna, for Minister Francken to admit that level of frustration is really telling and that the president's words do go a long way at reducing the unity of NATO, regardless of whether they had a good meeting at a senior level tonight.

AMNA NAWAZ: All right, that is Nick Schifrin reporting from the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey.

Nick, thank you.