This story was originally published in the December 3 edition of CNN's Meanwhile in America, the daily email about US politics for global readers. Champagne corks ought to be popping as leaders of the world's most powerful military alliance meet outside London this week. Turkey is closer than ever to Russia -- the nation that the mutual defense alliance was first set up to counter. But Donald Trump himself is the most powerful destabilizing force facing NATO today. It's that Trump sees the historic alliance as a protection racket rather than a multiplier of US global diplomatic and military power.

Source: CNN December 03, 2019 05:37 UTC