ANKARA – NATO’s annual leaders’ meetings have become exercises in pleasing U.S. President Donald Trump, or at least to buy time for the alliance’s European members and Canada to prepare for a world in which Washington is no longer the cornerstone of their security.
Watching the final press conferences at this year’s summit in the Turkish capital, one would think it was mission accomplished — and then some.
The alliance reaffirmed its commitment to the Article 5 collective defense mechanism, amid fears that the U.S. may not intervene to defend members against a Russian attack.
Following the meeting, Secretary General Mark Rutte and Trump both gushed to the press about the unity shown at the meeting of 32 assembled leaders.
And in a speech straight out of a campaign rally, the U.S. president rambled about how much love the rest of NATO showed him and his country, boasted of being No. 1 on TikTok and warned about the dangers of Communism, joking that he’d be a better Communist than Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin.
