Nice little NATO you have here …
by digby
What an asshole:
*Look at their faces* and the whispering as Trump admonishes leaders over NATO financial obligations. pic.twitter.com/gLCYgKTdi3— Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) May 25, 2017
Did Trump just shove another NATO leader to be in the front of the group? pic.twitter.com/bL1r2auELd— Steve Kopack (@SteveKopack) May 25, 2017
This is just embarrassing. He went to the Middle East and said not a word about human rights. Now he’s in Europe basically threatening to break some legs if they don’t pay the vig.
Here’s the NYTimes on the talks yesterday:
President Trump, a blunt critic of the European Union during his campaign for the White House, received a chilly reception from his European counterparts on Thursday as they began meetings in Brussels, clashing over trade, climate and the best way to confront Russia.
The president’s first meeting with the Continent’s leaders began with officials from the United States and Europe saying nothing to each other. After being welcomed to Brussels, Mr. Trump said, “Thank you very much,” but he was otherwise silent as he gazed at the cameras across the room.
Donald Tusk, who represents the leaders of the bloc’s 28 member states as president of the European Council, made it clear after the morning meeting that there had been several areas of disagreement.
“Some issues remained open like climate and trade,” Mr. Tusk told reporters shortly after the meeting at European Union headquarters in Brussels. “And I am not 100 percent sure that we can say today — ‘we’ means Mr. President and myself — that we have a common position, common opinion, about Russia.”
Mr. Trump and Mr. Tusk differed over the intentions and policies of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, an increasing source of anxiety in Europe in light of the country’s apparent attempts to meddle in elections in Europe and the United States, and its increasingly assertive foreign policy, notably in Ukraine.
Mr. Tusk expressed a far more skeptical view of the Russians in the talks, according to a person with direct knowledge of the meeting who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the talks were held privately.
It looks like everyone can relax about this alleged “new cold war.” Trump’s holding fast on his high opinion of Russian leadership and policies, no matter what. Europe seems to be our new common enemy. But then this isn’t really new, is it? The right has been hostile to Europe for many moons. Recall Michael Ledeen’s famous essay arguing for the US to declare war on Germany and France for failing to back the invasion of Iraq. Ledeen is the co-author of Michael Flynn’s book “Fear of Flight.”
.