EMMANUEL MACRON

After that handshake in Brussels, the Trump-Macron relationship really took off. The two stayed in touch by phone and shared embraces and kisses when they met again in April.

Macron — who at 40 is young enough to be Trump’s son — was the first foreign leader treated to a lavish state visit to Washington. In a gesture that would be scrutinized for its meaning, Trump brushed the shoulders of the French president’s pristine suit before one of their photo ops.

“We have a very special relationship; In fact, I’ll get that little piece of dandruff off. We have to make him perfect — He is perfect,” Trump chattered as Macron smiled, appearing unruffled by the act of...intimacy? Dominance? Protectiveness? Disrespect? singed onto in 2015 and Macron strongly backs.

Trump’s decision to impose the steel tariffs created more distance. Macron called it “illegal” and a “mistake.” By June, Macron was looking to take the lead of a European brigade against Trump, rejecting American “hegemony.” NATO events this week.

Tusk, a former Polish prime minister who is president of the European Council, let it be known before the 2016 U.S. presidential election that he thought “one Donald is more than enough!” He says time has only proven him more right.

Tusk has described Trump’s abrasiveness as a challenge for Europe equal to China’s expanding economic power or Russia’s belligerence. He called it “a new phenomenon, the capricious assertiveness of the American administration.”

“Someone could even think ‘with friends like that, who needs enemies,’” Tusk asked this spring after Trump first threatened to slap tariffs on EU steel and aluminum exports and reneged on an agreement to stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons.

At the NATO summit, where leaders will discuss how to counter Russian aggression, Trump’s one-on-one summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin days after will be the big elephant in the room.