A CRITICAL TRIP – AT 8:08 A.M. ET:   The president, in a surprise move, will attend a NATO summit in May.  From the New York Post: 

WASHINGTON — The White House has announced what is expected to be President Donald Trump’s first foreign trip.

Press Secretary Sean Spicer says the president will travel to Brussels, Belgium, on May 25 for a meeting with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization heads of state.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announced the meeting earlier Tuesday.

Spicer says the president is looking forward to meeting with his NATO counterparts “to reaffirm our strong commitment to NATO, and to discuss issues critical to the alliance, especially allied responsibility-sharing and NATO’s role in the fight against terrorism.”

Stoltenberg is set to visit the White House on April 12.

Trump accused NATO of being “obsolete” during the campaign and criticized Brussels, equating it to “like living in a hellhole right now.”

COMMENT:  I think the NATO leaders will see a serious president, but will still play the European game of talking down to him.

Remember that Ronald Reagan, the most consequential president of our time, was laughed at in Europe.  Great throngs of European leftists would greet him with demonstrations.  The European press accepted the image of him as an "amiable dunce."  He was amiable, but no dunce. 

Reagan, with Margaret Thatcher and Pope John Paul II, changed the world, made it more free, and more peaceful.  But Barack Obama and Jimmy Carter got Nobel Peace prizes.  That's Europe.

Nice museums, though.  Some are air-conditioned.

March 22, 2017