He didn’t exactly start the summit off on the right foot. Embarrassingly, Trump arrived half an hour late to the summit and missed his first couple of scheduled meetings with world leaders.
The president misleading claimed that our NATO partners have been delinquent on defense spending and accused Germany of being “captive to Russia” before official discussions even had a chance to begin.
Trump even reportedly threatened to abandon our NATO allies, forcing them to call an emergency session.
Trump claimed that NATO allies had agreed to raise their defense spending beyond agreed upon targets, but other NATO leaders had to clean up after the president and refute his claims.
In past administrations, NATO summits were used as an opportunity to maintain our longstanding transatlantic alliances and ensure those relationships stay strong going forward. Instead of continuing this long-standing practice of basic diplomacy, Trump attacked our allies and further weakened our standing in the world.
Unfortunately, we’ve seen through Trump’s words and actions that he would much rather court dictators than build upon our decades-long relationship with NATO.
Trump’s treatment of our international allies flies in the face of decades of established diplomatic norms and even goes against the views of his Republican ilk in Congress. Not even his friends in Congress support his petulant attitude towards NATO.
We’ve seen from Trump’s embarrassing rants and Twitter tirades that he clearly does not understand exactly how important our fellow NATO partners are to America’s national security.
- Without these relationships in place, our overall national security posture will suffer tremendously and America will project far less strength.
- In combat zones across the globe, America has fought alongside our loyal friends in NATO. The countries who have shed blood alongside us deserve a dependable partner.
Diplomacy should always be the chief tool used in working towards global peace. However, the actions of this president and his administration do not give us much faith in his diplomatic abilities.