European leaders say they no longer have any illusions about Donald Trump as they welcome the U.S. president at a NATO summit this week, but they fear his "America first" agenda may force a moment of reckoning that works to no one's benefit.
After searching for stability and familiarity in U.S. foreign policy in Trump's first year in office, America's friends in Europe have come to accept the president as an unpredictable political insurgent. But that does not make it any easier to see their own priorities undermined.
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas warned in a recent speech that "old pillars of reliability are crumbling," in a veiled reference to the U.S. withdrawal from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal to tariffs on EU metals exports and the threat of more to come on cars.