After threatening to withdraw from the alliance, the president did not mention it in his address to the nation, and will meet the secretary general, Mark Rutte, next week
After all the excitement about Donald Trump’s rapidly escalating rhetoric on Nato and (his own) suggestions he would go even further in last night’s address to the nation, he … just didn’t say anything about it at all.
Whether it was the late phone call intervention by Europe’s finest Trump whisperer, Finland’s Alexander Stubb, or the prospect of next week’s Washington visit from Nato’s secretary general Mark Rutte, we will never know, but the fact is that we live to fight another day.
There were some usual swipes about “delayed courage” of unnamed allies, but we heard all of that before. In fact, the word “Nato” did not even feature in his speech. (As I kind of suggested was an option yesterday.)
Instead, Trump used a prime-time address to the nation to declare the month-long war in Iran a success “nearing completion”, despite, erm, a spiraling conflict that has caused economic turmoil across the globe, fractured transatlantic alliances and eroded the president’s approval ratings.
