Tag: NATO

Biden, E.U. end 17-year Airbus-Boeing trade dispute, seek to calm relations after Trump

Washington Post logo

BRUSSELS — President Biden and European Union leaders reached a deal Tuesday to put to rest a 17-year-old trade dispute about subsidies for aircraft manufacturers, officials said, a significant step in calming trade relations after the fury of the Trump years.

A five-year truce, which was announced at a meeting Tuesday in Brussels between Biden and the top leaders of E.U. institutions, was the latest effort in a transatlantic reconciliation tour that the new president started last week at the Group of Seven summit in Britain.

At each stop, including at NATO on Monday, Biden has tried to mend ties that were damaged under President Donald Trump, who often drew close to traditional American adversaries and targeted longtime allies with vitriol. Continue reading.

E.U. to Trump: ‘We are not foes’

Washington Post logoThe past three years have placed heavy strains on the transatlantic relationship. President Trump has cheered the European Union’s dismemberment, called into question American participation in the West’s most important military alliance and used the threat of punitive tariffs to bend traditional allies to his will.

Beleaguered politicians on the continent looked on as Trump scrapped America’s commitments to the Iran nuclear deal — the product of years of multilateral diplomacy and multiple high-wire summits hosted by the Europeans. They watched in dismay as Trump abdicated American leadership on climate action. And their objections were ignored as the White House rolled out a new road map for Middle East peace that contradicted the long-standing approach of both Washington and Brussels.

In this trying time, the E.U.’s top diplomat is putting on a brave face. “The list is long of things” that could be read as signs that the United States is “not very friendly,” said Josep Borrell, high representative of the European Union, in an exclusive interview with Today’s WorldView on Friday. But those differences, Borrell added, still can’t supersede a sense of transatlantic solidarity that endures.

Trump’s NATO parade of falsehoods and misstatements

Washington Post logoWe are not here to mock the president. But we need to update our chronicle of how he consistently misunderstands NATO financing.

Back in March 2016, The Fact Checker reviewed some inaccurate statements that then-candidate Trump made about the funding of NATO. We concluded that “Trump is simply wrong on direct funding and is imprecise and possibly out of date on indirect funding.”

Since he became president, Trump has continued along the same path. We offered updates in 2017 and 2018. Given the president’s remarks during and after the latest NATO summit, it’s time for another look at this issue.

Continue reading

Unruly, pouty and boastful: A field guide for Trump’s journeys abroad

Washington Post logoWATFORD, England — President Trump often ends his foreign jaunts with a grand flourish: a solo news conference where he plays the flamboyant diplomat, riffing on the trip, establishing dominance — and, most important, offering his final version of reality before blowing out of town.

That Trump slunk out of the NATO summit here Wednesday after hastily canceling his planned news conference underscored just how unsettling he found his two-day visit.

French President Emmanuel Macron had confronted Trump on areas of disagreement, and a video surfaced of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau privately mocking the American president in a huddle with Macron and other world leaders during a Buckingham Palace reception.

Continue reading

NATO summit ends with Trump calling Trudeau ‘two-faced’ after video of world leaders apparently mocking the president

Washington Post logoWATFORD, England — President Trump, who has demeaned his rivals for being laughed at around the world, found himself the scorned child on the global playground at a NATO summit here Wednesday, as widely circulated video showed leaders gossiping about and mocking him.

The video, captured at a Buckingham Palace reception Tuesday evening, appeared to show Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and others laughing about Trump’s freewheeling news conferences earlier in the day. “I just watched his team’s jaws drop to the floor,” Trudeau told the others, dropping his hand toward the ground to dramatize his retelling.

And so it was Wednesday morning that Trump presented a sulking, brooding president, as he slapped down Trudeau as “two-faced” and engaged with other foreign counterparts at a secluded estate here outside London.

Continue reading

Trump, Macron hold tense meeting: ‘Would you like some nice ISIS fighters? I can give them to you’

The Hill logoPresident Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron held a tense meeting Tuesday on the sidelines of a NATO summit, with Trump at one point telling the French leader he could send him some “ISIS fighters” if he wanted them.

“Would you like some nice ISIS fighters? I can give them to you,” Trump said with a slight smile at the meeting, which was carried live on cable news. “You can take every one you want.”

“Let’s be serious,” Macron replied sternly, reasoning that most ISIS fighters came from Syria, Iraq and Iran and disputing Trump’s common refrain that the terrorist group had been defeated.

Continue reading here.

 

Trump clashes with Macron ahead of NATO’s 70th-anniversary summit

Washington Post logoLONDON — President Trump on Tuesday slammed as “very, very nasty” and “very disrespectful” recent comments by his French counterpart about the diminished state of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization alliance.

Referring to comments President Emmanuel Macron made last month in an interview with the Economist magazine — in which Macron described the “brain death” of NATOresulting from America’s failure to consult with its allies — Trump attacked Macron on the first day of the NATO 70th-anniversary summit in London, calling the comments “very insulting.”<

“You just can’t go around making statements like that about NATO,” Trump said, sitting next to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at a one-on-one meeting between the two leaders Tuesday morning. Though Trump himself has long been a vocal critic of NATO — a combative stance that has alarmed Western allies and seemed to prompt Macron’s comments — Trump took umbrage at the French assessment of the alliance, and he depicted France as the beneficiary of American largesse.

Continue reading here.

Five things to watch for at Trump’s NATO meetings

The Hill logoPresident Trump left Washington on Monday for a two-day trip to the United Kingdom for a meeting of NATO leaders — just as the House impeachment inquiry enters a new stage.

Trump is often a wild card at NATO meetings, having criticized the alliance and pushed member countries to increase their contributions.

Here are five things to watch.

Continue reading here.

Trump’s photo op play: Facing impeachment, the president strives to look hard at work

Washington Post logoPALM BEACH, Fla. — As Democrats in Congress push to impeach him, President Trump has toured a manufacturing plant in Texas, boasted about economic gains and signed numerous bills. He served turkey to U.S. troops in Afghanistan on Thanksgiving and grieved with the families of fallen service members at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.

And next week, Trump is scheduled to jet to London to meet with European allies and be received at Buckingham Palace by Queen Elizabeth II.

Sure, Trump has been consumed by the impeachment proceedings, popping off daily, if not hourly, about what he dubs a “hoax.” But he and his aides also have staged photo opportunities and public events designed to showcase the president on the job — a strategy one year out from the election to convince the American people that he is hard at work for them at the same time that Democrats are trying to remove him from office.

View the complete November 30 article by Philip Rucker on The Washington Post website here.

Trump thanks Finland for support on NATO, but Finland is not in NATO

The following article by Rebekah Entralgo was posted on the ThinkProgress website July 16, 2018:

Alternative facts.

Trump thanks Finnish president for support on NATO, forgets Finland is not in NATO. Credit: Chris McGrath, Getty Images

President Donald Trump met with Finnish president Sauli Niinistö Monday, ahead of his scheduled summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki.

According to reporters, Trump thanked the Finnish president for his support and said the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has never been stronger.

“I enjoyed being with you a couple of days ago. NATO has, I think, never been stronger. It was a little bit tough at the beginning, but it turned out to be love. I appreciated your support,” Trump said in his opening remarks.

View the complete article on the ThinkProgress website here.