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Eli Lake

NATO’s Real Crisis Is Turkey, Not Trump

The president’s complaints are distracting the alliance as one of its most important members drifts toward Russia.

This is what NATO should be worried about. — This is what NATO should be worried about.
Photographer: Ivan Sekretarev/AFP/Getty Images

By

July 11, 2018, 11:15 AM UTC

From the perspective of Europe, the crisis within the North Atlantic Treaty Organization has a name: Donald Trump.

It’s easy to understand why. The U.S. president calls the European NATO members freeloaders. He declined at last year’s summit to reiterate the entire point of the alliance, that an attack on one is an attack on all. He praises Russian President Vladimir Putin, and has arranged to meet him after dressing down the allies in Brussels this week.