During his inaugural international trip as the leader of the free world, President Donald Trump learned the problem with first impressionsyou only get to make one.
After indulging the royals of Saudi Arabia with assurances that he was not here to lecturein exchange for gold chains and glowing orbsTrump took a much harder stance toward major Western democracies, distancing his administration politically and, in some cases, personally from some of Americas oldest and closest allies. The concept of diplomacy as a pursuit of mutually beneficial terms for both parties stood in stark relief against Trumps worldview, which divvies up the world into two groups: winners and losers.
In a meeting with European Union leaders on Wednesday, Trump reportedly dubbed the Germans bad, very bad and decried current U.S. military commitments to Europe as unfair to the people and taxpayers of the United States. During a ceremony at NATO headquarters in Brussels meant to dedicate a memorial to the alliances strength in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Trump scolded NATO member nations for not paying what they should be paying.
Rather than speak to leaders from the 28 nations of which NATO is comprised, Trump instead, it appeared, spoke to his base. Trump declined to recommit the United States to upholding Article 5 of the NATO Treaty, which stipulates that an attack against one member nation is considered an attack against all. The omissionlater downplayed by White House press secretary Sean Spicerunderscores threats Trump made as a candidate to treat Article 5 as conditional, based on whether a country was spending enough on defense.