NATO/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “US President Donald Trump’s NATO summit in Brussels unfolded like a three-act play. Throughout it all, Trump deployed the tactics, stagecraft and rhetorical flourish that have come to define his approach to politics and international diplomacy, alternating between insults, threats and praise to whiplash effect. The curtain opened in Brussels with a salvo of provocative insults aimed at one of the closest US allies, Germany. As his comments reverberated around the summit, Trump watched as the NATO secretary general was forced onto a tightrope woven out of the caustic statements. The US President delivered a characteristically Trumpian finale, calling for an unscheduled, closed-door meeting of NATO leaders before emerging to claim a reality-bending victory. But his ultimate act of bravado at NATO — a hastily announced news conference during which Trump defended his hard-nose tactics and put the summit in his win column — was quickly falling apart as he left Brussels, with fellow world leaders disputing Trump’s bold claims that he secured new financial commitments from the alliance’s full membership. Trump’s show, they suggested, was a charade.”
–Jeremy Diamond, “Trump drama overshadows NATO summit,” CNN Politics, CNN.com, July 12, 2018 1:50 pm