Trump back from his world tour

Trump back from his world tour May 29, 2017

President_Trump's_Trip_Abroad_(33994180663)

President Trump is back from his first official international trip.  Most observers from all sides say that he did well in the religion part of his journey, visiting Saudi Arabia, Israel, and the Pope.  In Europe, for the NATO meeting and the G7 summit, he didn’t make himself any friends, but he made himself clear.

He berated the NATO members that do not pay their treaty-mandated fair share to the military partnership.  This irked the representatives of those countries, but surely he has a point there.  (Wouldn’t Democrats also agree that the USA shouldn’t fit the entire bill for protecting European nations?)

But he didn’t commit the United States to Article V of the NATO treaty, which provides that an attack on any member nation will be considered to be an attack on them all.  That commitment is a matter of international law, and the State Department says that of course the United States would abide by it, coming to the defense of any NATO member who is attacked.  But Trump has earlier questioned that provision–at least in the case of nations that are behind in their payments–and Europe hoped that he would state his commitment to that key article.

Nor did President Trump agree to be a part of the Paris climate accord.

German prime minister Angela Merkel says that the European countries can’t necessarily depend on other nations and in many areas may have to go it alone. That’s being taken as a criticism of Trump, but I suspect Trump would agree with her.

Meanwhile, media attention concentrated on trivial but supposedly telling gestures:  Trump pushing aside the president of Montenegro so he could be in the front row of the official photograph of world leaders.  Trump and new French president Macron turning a photo-op handshake into a macho hand-squeezing contest (which Macron admitted).  Trump’s comment that Germany is “bad” in trade, referring to our trade imbalance with that country, being translated to say Germany is “evil.”  In short, European leaders don’t like Trump, but they know he is someone to contend with.

From Trump’s ‘Home Run’ Trip Leaves White House Happy, Europe Mixed – Bloomberg:

The world just got its first close-up look at Donald Trump. It didn’t always like what it saw.

There he was pushing aside Montenegro’s prime minister to be front-and-center for a NATO photo-op. Here he was beaming giddily next to a stern-faced pope. On the same day, his wife Melania swatted away his attempt to hold hands.

In Saudi Arabia, one senior White House official marveled at the lack of protesters, perhaps not realizing Saudi bans them. In Israel, after an historic direct flight from Riyadh, Trump raised eyebrows with the comment, “we just got back from the Middle East.” In Brussels, Trump walked into the gleaming new NATO headquarters — and, with a real-estate mogul’s eye, made clear he wondered if they’d overpaid. . . .

By the time he got to Sicily, Trump probably wished he were back at the glittering sword-dance ceremony in the Middle East, where various parties — Israelis, Palestinians, Saudis — need the U.S. for trade, peace and protection.

NATO Skeptic

Europe, on the other hand, is prepared to go on without him. After the presidential election, the Continent’s leaders always figured they’d be going it alone without the Brexit-loving, free trade-bashing, NATO skeptic. Nothing that happened on this trip should fundamentally change that view. The trans-Atlantic alliance stands, but with people on both sides in a state of sober, not heartfelt, embrace.

 [Keep reading. . .]

Photo of President Trump and the Emir of Qatar in Saudi Arabia by The White House from Washington, DC (President Trump’s Trip Abroad) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

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