Publicly, Trump kept the rhetorical damage to a minimum. No, really...is that it? The guy who packs arenas with rabid fans and rips into anyone and everyone sacred, the master disrupter of modern politics, the man who can send Washington into a tizzy with a phrase came to Brussels and — gasp! — joined a joint declaration with all of the standard promises and support for NATO.
In fact, Trump and the other heads-of-state- and -government issued a 23-page joint declaration containing a full-throated show of unity and frank assessment of the threats to Europe and North America — particularly Russia. To punch it home, NATO issued a separate three-page declaration on “solidarity.” In both documents, NATO leaders explicitly call out Russia in the second paragraph, one of which accuses Moscow of “violating international law,” and “conducting provocative military activities,” and in the third they address defense spending commitments, a perennial concern that Trump has turned into a cudgel. They blast Russia for its “illegal and illegitimate annexation of Crimea,” its military buildup in Kaliningrad, and the chemical weapons attacks in the UK. From cyber threats to Baltic exercises, they say it all.
