U.S. President Donald Trump's recent European trip can only be described as disastrous. He publicly confronted his NATO allies, insulted British Prime Minister Theresa May before arriving in her country, called the European Union "a foe" and held a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin that was a low point in U.S. diplomacy — and the repercussions of that encounter continue to reverberate through Washington and allied capitals. The White House is in damage-control mode, but correcting the president's ill-considered words does not fix the larger problem of his intentions and the direction of U.S. policy.
After the confrontation and breakdown engineered by Trump at the Group of Seven summit in early June, there was great concern about what the president would say and do at the NATO meeting last week. Even before the meeting began, he attacked Germany — and Chancellor Angela Merkel — for being "totally controlled" by Russia because of its purchase of Russian natural gas. He showed up late for official meetings and warned of "grave consequences" if allies do not quickly increase defense spending, adding that the United States could go its own way if his demands are not met.
Yet Trump signed on to an official declaration and at the end of the summit praised the alliance as a "fine-tuned machine." European leaders pushed back against the president's claim that he had forced them to increase spending. French President Emmanuel Macron insisted that the alliance commitment to hit spending goals by 2024 remained unchanged. Trump added to the confusion in an interview a few days later when he suggested that the U.S. might not honor the NATO treaty's Article 5 commitment to defend its allies in the event of a conflict.