NATO’s European members have long thought they would prefer an ailing Joe Biden to an unpredictable Donald Trump. But now they’re coming to terms with the fact that — whoever wins the election — U.S. priorities are increasingly going to shift elsewhere.
At the same time as their summit in Washington was overshadowed by speculation on what the U.S. president’s decline means for his party’s prospects of defeating Trump in November, there were noises off-stage sharpening the visitors’ focus on what comes next.
At a rally this week Trump dug in on criticisms of NATO, indicating he was prepared to ignore its central pillar: the clause on collective defense. But European officials say they’re expecting both he and his democratic counterpart to concentrate more on China at the expense of Europe.