NATO NO SHOW: The U.S. won’t be sending its top diplomat to the annual NATO foreign ministers meeting in Brussels next month, the State Department has confirmed. Instead, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson plans to stay home to attend President Trump’s talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, expected to take place April 6-7. Tillerson will miss what would have been his first meeting of the 28 NATO allies in Brussels, but he will have a chance to meet with many of his fellow foreign ministers at the counter ISIS summit being held at the State Department tomorrow. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis will also be attending the summit, which involves representatives from more than 60 nations. Mattis will meet with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at the Pentagon this morning.

The decision to skip the NATO meeting reflects how seriously the Trump administration takes the problem of North Korea, which just tested a new rocket engine that in theory could power an intercontinental ballistic missile that could threaten the U.S. with a nuclear warhead. In a campaign-style rally last night in Louisville, Kentucky, Trump again accused North Korea of behaving badly. “North Korea, I’ll tell you what. What’s happening there is disgraceful and not smart, not smart at all.”