Trump hits contentious note en route to NATO

BRUSSELS — President Donald Trump signaled he was ready for a transatlantic brawl Tuesday as he embarked on a consequential week of international diplomacy, taking aim at vulnerable British Prime Minister Theresa May and suggesting that meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin might be easier than talking with allies at the NATO summit.

Leaders converged on Brussels fearful of what the combative U.S. president might say or do, with some European diplomats privately predicting calamity.

Trump’s seven-day journey begins in Brussels and will take him to England and Scotland and finally to Helsinki for his tête-àtête with Putin

Trump seizing on perceptions of weakness in the diplomatic arena. That impulse may be strongest with Angela Merkel of Germany. Trump loathes Germany’s trade imbalance with the United States and feels the country is free-riding off the U.S. security umbrella.

Other sometimes-adversaries of Trump will be in Brussels as well, including French President Emmanuel Macron and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, creating the potential to extend disagreements.

But European Council President Donald Tusk was more direct in anticipating that Trump may have designs on sowing discord, delivering a warning to Trump. “Dear America, appreciate your allies,” Tusk said. “After all, you don’t have that many.”