Trump's portrayal of NATO in crisis risks for alliance

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Donald Trump's portrayal of NATO's an an alliance in crisis has raised concern that the U.S. president's nagging criticism might erode U.S. public support and risk America's commitment to collective defense, diplomats said.

Allies emerged confused and shaken from a two-day NATO summit in which Trump harangued them over perceived under- spending on defense, accused of being a prisoner of war

NATO diplomats complained that the drama around Trump's forthright comments had overshadowed big decisions that the allies took in to areas of defense to new weapons and strategies to address Russia's efforts to destabilize the West through cyber and covert attacks.

"There was a gap between the Trumpian-generated idea that is one of the most substantial summits for years," one senior NATO diplomatic source told Reuters.

Having questioned the value of NATO in tweets throughout the summit, Trump later told reporters that the 29-member military alliance "was not doing what they were supposed to be doing" until he came to Brussels and that he was "extremely unhappy "Until his intervention.

Then he asked for "total credit" for defense spending, although they were in fact agreed in 2014, and warned that "NATO is helping Europe more than it is helping us," in language that did not make a public case for unity.

However, the summit also agreed on a new training mission for Iraq, an invitation for Balkan state Macedonia to join NATO and more funding for troops in Afghanistan.

While Trump did let the 79-point summit statement go through, his assertion that "I've taken a lot of bad hands and I am fixing them," at the end of the summit left the impression there were serious problems at NATO, diplomats said.

NATO may now need its friends in the United States and the United States, they said.

The U.S. Senate overwhelmingly approved a motion in support of NATO on the eve of this week's summit, and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry form called for more.

"Enough," the Democrat said of Trump's style at the summit. "This is not good for the United States and there are people across the aisle – how do you know it?" Kerry said on Twitter.

PERCEPTION, REALITY

The summit decisions, agreed by all 29 allied governments, won hardly any sustained public attention and the underlying unity was undercut by Trump's claims he had won new pledges in defense spending, forcing the French and Italian leaders into denials that dominated post-summit news conferences.

He reiterated that claim in Britain on Friday.

"The concern is that this is not a noise to disregard, because perception is reality and this president may be six years old," the senior source said.

NATO, founded in 1949 to contain a military threat from the Soviet Union, links to the United States' military superiority to face a host of threats on Europe's borders, including a resurgent, nuclear-armed Russia and militant attacks.

A commitment to defend each other's suggestion that the United States would not come to Europe because, as Trump has suggested, they were "massive" sums, they could have a blow to their deterrence.

"President Trump has not taken damaging actions against NATO, but his words are damaging," said Adam Thomson, a former British ambassador to NATO and now director of the European Leadership Network think-tank in London.

Having lambasted NATO for failing to reach a target of 2 percent of national income on defense, Trump told fellow leaders in Brussels he would prefer a goal of 4 percent, similar to US levels, and then demanded victory for forcing countries to move .

He also said he expected a easier meeting with Russian President Vladimir on Monday in Helsinki in remarks that contrast with the West's accusations that Moscow is seeking to undermine European democracies.

NO MORE SUMMITS?

One option aired by diplomats is to scrap regular NATO summits altogether and return to the era of the 1980s, when such leaders-level assemblies were less common and when much of the decision-making was taken by defense and foreign ministers.

But Thomson said that was not realistic. "You can not ignore Trump, he will find a way to make himself heard."

Some European officials feel confident that they should be more confident in calling on Trump's mis-statements about the alliance.

Trump's claims that the United States for 90 percent of European security and NATO are incorrect, NATO data shows.

While U.S. defense spending makes up 70 percent of allied governments, just 15 percent of U.S. is spent in Europe on NATO-related defense.

Washington country about 22 percent of the running cost of NATO, including the headquarters and common-funded equipment such as AWACS surveillance planes.

Trump has also been proclaimed to the United States and NATO, but allied contributions are voluntary and there are multiple budgets.

At 3.5 percent, the United States' own annual defense spending is below the 4-percent-of-GDP level that Trump has said it is, NATO figures show.