For almost two days, President Trump played his part in papering over NATO divisions — declaring himself a fan of the alliance, defending it from detractors, and talking up allies.
But the goodwill ran out at the eleventh hour when video surfaced of other world leaders mocking him.
A carefully honed plan to keep Trump in good spirits during the summit at a country hotel outside Watford, England, counted for nothing as the president denounced Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as “two-faced” and abandoned plans for an end-of-visit address.
“We won’t be doing a press conference at the close of NATO because we did so many over the past two days,” he wrote on Twitter. “Safe travels to all!”
At least this time, he waited until after the main business of the meeting had concluded, said seasoned NATO watchers, who remembered his one-man wrecking ball approach to the summit in Brussels next year.
….When today’s meetings are over, I will be heading back to Washington. We won’t be doing a press conference at the close of NATO because we did so many over the past two days. Safe travels to all!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 4, 2019
But it was still a difficult end to a meeting designed to celebrate 70 years of the transatlantic alliance.
“London will be in a tizz,” said a senior British source, who added the Foreign Office had spent weeks fretting about all the possible things that could go wrong, including Trump’s thin skin and his potential to blow things up on Twitter.
Trump’s tweet alluded to the cause of his frustration. A night earlier, a gaggle of leaders, including Trudeau, Emmanuel Macron of France, and host Boris Johnson were caught on camera at Buckingham Palace gossiping about the president.
“He was late because he takes a 40-minute press conference off the top,” Trudeau told his fellow world leaders as they chuckled at Trump’s freewheeling style.
Trudeau later added, “You just watched his team’s jaws drop to the floor.”
For much of the meeting, the gathered leaders had managed to put aside policy differences such as how to deal with the crisis in Ukraine and Turkey’s Syrian incursions.
Observers noted that Trump, in particular, who once called NATO obsolete and disrupted last year’s summit by threatening to go his own way if other nations did not spend more on defense, had behaved. He even took on the mantle of cheerleader to defend the alliance from Macron’s recent criticism that it was “brain dead.”
“When I came in, I was angry at NATO,” said Trump on Tuesday, before claiming credit for a surge in defense spending by Canada and European nations since 2016. “And now I’ve raised $130 billion” from NATO countries.
That change in demeanor was in large part down to a strategy devised by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg to address Trump’s complaints that allies were shirking their duties.
Last week he announced that Germany was going to pay more towards NATO’s central budget.
“The U.S. will pay less, Germany will pay more, so now the U.S. and Germany will pay the same,” he said.
He also announced a $1 billion deal with Boeing to upgrade its Airborne Warning and Control System planes. It was seen as a timely reminder of the alliance’s ties to the Chicago-based plane-maker and its potential to create American jobs.
And Stoltenberg was at the White House last month to brief Trump on progress in persuading member nations to meet their commitment to spending 2% of gross domestic product on defense.
“It’s partly about managing Trump, but also it’s a recognition that Trump has a case, and this is just the right thing to do,” said one NATO insider.
Jeanne Zaino, professor of political science and international studies, said the meeting was also a welcome distraction from the second phase of impeachment proceedings starting at home. “At this time in their terms, U.S. presidents often flee abroad to escape the intense pressure they are feeling at home,” she said.
Trump’s end-of-trip news conference was scheduled to start at the same time as the House Judiciary Committee began its hearing.
But instead, he spent part of the day talking about Trudeau’s mockery.
“Well, he’s two-faced,” he said. “And honestly, with Trudeau, he’s a nice guy. I find him to be a very nice guy. But, you know, the truth is that I called him out on the fact that he’s not paying two percent, and I guess he’s not very happy about it.”
He was later heard boasting about his jibe, suggesting that his fury had given way to amusement.
“That was funny when I said that guy was two-faced,” he said.
Downing Street declined to comment on the awkward ending to the meeting.
Elisabeth Braw, of the Royal United Services Institute of Defense, said Trump had to expect that his tough tactics meant allies would gossip. Such disharmony only benefited NATO’s enemies.
“They watch this discord — these tensions within NATO — with glee every time it happens. This time it wasn’t going to happen,” she said. “Yet, it happened again.”
[Related: Trudeau downplays hot mic incident and touts ‘excellent relationship’ with Trump]
