Trump fist-bumped Turkish leader Erdogan, said he ‘does things the right way’
Erdogan’s security staff beating up peaceful protesters in Washington D.C., May 17, 2017:
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.” [Continue reading…]