UNHINGED: Trump blindsided his own national security team in NATO Speech – HuffPost

While Donald Trump was still a candidate running for president, many of his supporters defended both his lack of experience in politics and his ever-more-bizarre behavior by asserting that once he became president, he would surround himself with the best minds and carefully listen to their wisdom.

Well, a disturbing new report from Politico pretty much debunks that prediction.

Just over a week ago, Trump gave an embarrassing speech at a NATO summit in Brussels, using his allotted time to shed scorn on the leaders of our closest European allies over ultimately petty and arbitrary disagreements about the NATO defense budget.

The most important aspect of the speech however was not what he said, but rather what he didnt say. Trump refused to reaffirm the United States commitment to the mutual defense of all member states, outlined in Article 5 of the NATO charter. This came as a surprise and a disappointment to many of our European allies, particularly because of the threat Eastern European members face from an emboldened Russia under Vladimir Putin.

But, according to the Politico report, it turns out that the European leaders gathered for the summit were not the only ones who were surprised by Trumps omission. Five sources with direct knowledge of what happened said that national security adviser H.R. McMaster, Defense Secretary James Mattis and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson ALL wanted Trump to show support for Article 5 in his speech and were totally blindsided when he didnt.

McMaster, Mattis and Tillerson had all worked with Trump on the speech in the weeks leading up to the trip and believed that a show of support for Article 5 would be included in the speech. A White House aid even told a New York Times reporter a day before the speech that a line about Article 5 would definitely be included.

But somehow, by the time of the speech, Trump had decided to axe any mention of Article 5, and instead showed disdain for NATO as in institution throughout his speech.

According to the sources cited by Politico, Trump made the decision seemingly on a whim without consulting any of his advisors, who were never even informed about his change of plans.

While McMaster, Mattis and Tillerson are by no means progressives, once again were learning that relatively, theyre acting as a moderating influence in this ever-more-radical administration.

This is actually one of the biggest stories of the last couple of weeks because of the potentially enormous consequences of having this much dysfunction amongst our top national security officials. Seriously weakening the institutional credibility of NATO on a whim is bad enough. Can you imagine if there were a real, direct security crisis with this level of dysfunction and incompetence going on?

This revelation also suggests that that no matter how hard the adults in the room try to babysit him, Trumps whacky and erratic mood swings end up playing a major role in policy decision making. Needless to say, thats terrifying.

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UNHINGED: Trump blindsided his own national security team in NATO Speech - HuffPost