TRUMP

advisers toil privately to maintain U.S. global leadership, post-World War II institutions and strong alliances, the president appears bent on challenging, if not upending, those conventions to get what he considers a better deal for the United States — even if he does not follow through on his threats.

Trump was primed for confrontation before the gathering was called to order in a large glass-and-steel NATO headquarters building that he has complained looks overly lavish. At a breakfast with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, Trump made it clear that he had come to Brussels as a virtual pariah among allies and was perfectly happy to be seen that way.

“I think the secretary-general likes Trump,” he said, alluding to allies’ stepping up their military spending in response to his pressure tactics. “He may be the only one, but that’s OK with me.”

Indeed, Trump spent the next several few hours practically ensuring it. He laid into Germany for not spending more on its military while becoming increasingly dependent on Russia for its energy needs, calling it a “captive of Russia.” His criticism was based on Germany’s deal to import natural gas from Russia.

He dismissed as paltry — “a very small step,” the president said — the increases that NATO member countries have made in their military budgets in part because of his repeated lectures on the issue.

“Frankly, many countries owe us a tremendous amount of money for many years back, where they’re delinquent, as far as I’m concerned, because the United States has had to pay for them,” Trump said, mischaracterizing how the commitments for NATO military spending work. “This has gone on for many presidents, but no other president brought it up like I bring it up.”

“Something has to be done,” Trump added.

Behind closed doors, Trump suggested that NATO allies increase their military budgets, not to the 2 percent of their economies that they have pledged to work toward within the next six years, but to 4 percent — a steep increase that is inconceivable for many member countries. Later, he took to Twitter to demand that member countries get to 2 percent “IMMEDIATELY, not by 2025.”

Yet unlike at the Group of 7 meeting in Quebec last month, Trump did not refuse to sign the NATO declaration, although it was a mark of how much uncertainty he has created among allies that news of his agreement to the statement of principles and goals was not certain.

The first day of the summit offered a stark portrait of an American president who is more comfortable using sharp elbows and less willing than ever to be restrained by advisers.

It also reflected the degree to which Trump believes that attacking Europe and NATO play well with his political base.

“I think he feels it’s playing well with his base, fueling this sense of grievance against allies and trading partners, which is how he got elected,” Alexander Vershbow, a former NATO deputy secretary-general, said of Trump in an interview.

“The danger,” Vershbow said, “is that he’s turning at least his base, and maybe other Americans, against NATO and against U.S. global leadership by falsely defining it as a protection racket where we haven’t been paid enough by the protectees, rather than as a mutually beneficial alliance that has kept peace and expanded the frontiers of democracy.”