NATO/SUMMIT/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Donald Trump is in his element when he abandons diplomatic protocol and enters fighting mode. And often, those fights are with America’s historic allies. The president’s open clashes at the NATO leader’s gathering this week with the leaders of France and Canada are a case in point. At the same time, Trump spent some of his time this week offering praise for authoritarian leaders like North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, before zig-zagging back to skepticism. The pattern of Trump slamming allies and praising strongmen is entrenched enough that officials from NATO countries spent weeks attempting to limit the ways Trump could disrupt this week’s proceedings. Even with the guardrails — such as avoiding referring to the event as an official ‘summit’ — Trump still carved our two hours of impromptu, grievance-filled press conferences.”
–Ryan Heath, “Breaking down Trump’s post-NATO hot spots,” Politico, December 5, 2019 5:15 am