The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Trump to meet worried NATO heads, then Putin
WASHINGTON — With the established global order on shaky footing, President Donald Trump’s weeklong trip to Europe will test already strained bonds with some of the United States’ closest allies, then put him face to face with the leader of the country whose alleged electoral interference was meant to help put him in office.
Trump departs Tuesday on a four-nation tour amid disputes over trade and military spending with fellow Western democracies and speculation about whether he will rebuke or embrace Russian President Vladimir Putin. He meets the Russian leader in Helsinki as the finale of a trip with earlier stops in Belgium, England and Scotland.
Trump has publicly upbraided world leaders at NATO’s new headquarters a year ago for not spending enough on defense and delivered indictments of Western trading partners last month at an international summit in Canada. On this trip, after meeting with NATO leaders in Brussels, he’ll travel to the United Kingdom, where protests are expected, before he heads to one of his Scottish golf resorts for the weekend.
In the run-up to his trip, the president did little to ease European concerns.
“I’ll tell NATO: ‘You’ve got to start paying your bills,’” Trump pledged at a rally last week in Montana in which he said that Americans were “the schmucks that are paying for the whole thing.”
He then discussed German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who will be in attendance in Brussels, complaining about how much the United
States put toward Germany’s defense: “And I said, you know, Angela, I can’t guarantee it, but we’re protecting you, and it means a lot more to you . ... I don’t know how much protection we get from protecting you.”
At the same time, he said that “Putin is fine” and that he had been preparing for their summit “all my life.”
Trump is expected to continue to press NATO nations to fulfill their commitments to spend 2 percent of their gross domestic product on defense by 2024. Trump has argued that countries not paying their fair share are freeloading off the U.S.
NATO estimates that 15 members, or just over half, will meet the benchmark by 2024 based on current trends. Trump sent letters to the leaders of several NATO countries ahead of his visit, warning that it would become “increasingly difficult to justify to American citizens why some countries fail to meet our shared collective security commitments.”
Although administration
officials point to the long-standing alliance between the United States and the United Kingdom, Trump’s itinerary will largely keep him out of central London, where significant protests are expected. Instead, a series of events — a black-tie dinner with business leaders, a meeting with Prime Minister Theresa May and an audience with Queen Elizabeth II — will happen outside the bustling city, where Mayor Sadiq Khan has been in a verbal battle with Trump.
Woody Johnson, Trump’s ambassador to the U.K., said the president is aware of the planned protests but insisted that Trump “appreciates free speech” in both countries.
Some analysts wonder what Trump might be willing to offer Putin without NATO signoff. On Putin’s wish list: an end to U.S. military exercises in Europe and the scaling back of U.S. forces there. The summit also will offer Putin a chance to try to persuade Trump to lift some of the sanctions imposed on Russia over its 2014 annexation of Crimea.