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In the days before his summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki Monday, President Donald Trump upset relations with America's allies during a visit to the United Kingdom and a contentious meeting with NATO leaders in Brussels.
In addition to calling the European Union a "foe" of the U.S. and criticizing British Prime Minister Theresa May for her handling of Brexit, Mr. Trump slammed fellow NATO countries for not contributing more towards defense spending.
On "CBS This Morning" Monday, Ian Bremmer, president of the Eurasia Group and a CBS News senior global affairs contributor, said that backstage at the NATO meeting there were elements that were even more eyebrow-raising than reports have suggested.
"One is that emergency session where they asked the Georgian and Ukrainian presidents to leave in the middle of their presentation. Apparently Trump said, 'OK, we're done with you now,'" Bremmer said.
"Trump was very frustrated; he wasn't getting commitments from other leaders to spend more. Many of them said, 'Well, we have to ask our parliaments. We have a process; we can't just tell you we're going to spend more, we have a legal process.' Trump turns around to the Turkish president, Recep Erdogan, and says, 'Except for Erdogan over here. He does things the right way,' and then actually fist-bumps the Turkish president."
It was a startling gesture of support for the increasingly authoritarian Turkish leader, who recently won another term and is widely expected to continue consolidating his power.
U.S. President Donald Trump and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan at the NATO summit in Brussels, Belgium, July 11, 2018.
REINHARD KRAUSE/REUTERS
"If you want to talk about to what extent the allies are comfortable with Trump as a person, a strongman leader, what we saw at the G-20. at that second meeting, what we see now with NATO and the Putin meeting, this is a very visible suggestion," Bremmer said.
"Which would make a fist bump unattractive and disturbing to people – it's a universal sign of 'Way to go, good job,'" said co-host Gayle King.
Bremmer agreed that heralding a strongman leader like Erdogan, who has initiated purges internally against critics and who has no effective domestic opposition, would make other European leaders nervous. "Turkey is hardly a liberal democracy at this point," he said.
( must say, Im enjoying to much imagining bremmers fuming face over Trump-Sultan fist bump) lol
In addition to calling the European Union a "foe" of the U.S. and criticizing British Prime Minister Theresa May for her handling of Brexit, Mr. Trump slammed fellow NATO countries for not contributing more towards defense spending.
On "CBS This Morning" Monday, Ian Bremmer, president of the Eurasia Group and a CBS News senior global affairs contributor, said that backstage at the NATO meeting there were elements that were even more eyebrow-raising than reports have suggested.
"One is that emergency session where they asked the Georgian and Ukrainian presidents to leave in the middle of their presentation. Apparently Trump said, 'OK, we're done with you now,'" Bremmer said.
"Trump was very frustrated; he wasn't getting commitments from other leaders to spend more. Many of them said, 'Well, we have to ask our parliaments. We have a process; we can't just tell you we're going to spend more, we have a legal process.' Trump turns around to the Turkish president, Recep Erdogan, and says, 'Except for Erdogan over here. He does things the right way,' and then actually fist-bumps the Turkish president."
It was a startling gesture of support for the increasingly authoritarian Turkish leader, who recently won another term and is widely expected to continue consolidating his power.
U.S. President Donald Trump and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan at the NATO summit in Brussels, Belgium, July 11, 2018.
REINHARD KRAUSE/REUTERS
"If you want to talk about to what extent the allies are comfortable with Trump as a person, a strongman leader, what we saw at the G-20. at that second meeting, what we see now with NATO and the Putin meeting, this is a very visible suggestion," Bremmer said.
"Which would make a fist bump unattractive and disturbing to people – it's a universal sign of 'Way to go, good job,'" said co-host Gayle King.
Bremmer agreed that heralding a strongman leader like Erdogan, who has initiated purges internally against critics and who has no effective domestic opposition, would make other European leaders nervous. "Turkey is hardly a liberal democracy at this point," he said.
( must say, Im enjoying to much imagining bremmers fuming face over Trump-Sultan fist bump) lol
