{"id":42054,"date":"2019-12-03T12:59:44","date_gmt":"2019-12-03T12:59:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staging.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2019\/12\/03\/natos-london-meetings-are-off-to-a-rocky-start\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T23:23:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T23:23:17","slug":"natos-london-meetings-are-off-to-a-rocky-start","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/smr\/nato-2020-defined\/2019\/12\/03\/natos-london-meetings-are-off-to-a-rocky-start\/","title":{"rendered":"NATO\u2019s London meetings are off to a rocky start"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

LONDON \u2014 U.S. President Donald Trump landed Tuesday in London with a splash, decrying French President Emmanuel Macron\u2019s recent description of NATO as brain dead, calling it a \u201cnasty\u201d assessment and unfair to the alliance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump\u2019s remarks on the eve of a meeting of government leaders here on Wednesday come as NATO members are already on edge about myriad internal differences. Clashing views have become so pronounced in the last few weeks that some observers fear the worst for what has been billed as NATO\u2019s 70th birthday bash.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou just can\u2019t go around making statements like that about NATO,\u201d Trump said of Macron in a joint news conference with Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. \u201cIt\u2019s very disrespectful.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The U.S. president\u2019s words are remarkable not for their tone \u2014 he also delivered an en passant bashing of French politics and economy \u2014 but for the substance of the argument. Trump, who has shown a deep disdain for the mere principle of multilaterlism, appears to be shielding NATO from Macron\u2019s critique, which in turn was partly aimed at himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Talk about the three-dimensional chess of geopolitics. Or something like that.<\/p>\n\n\n\t