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NATO to shorten discussion time to keep up with Trumps attention span

X

Xando

Member
NATO is scrambling to tailor its upcoming meeting to avoid taxing President Donald Trump’s notoriously short attention span. The alliance is telling heads of state to limit talks to two to four minutes at a time during the discussion, several sources inside NATO and former senior U.S. officials tell Foreign Policy. And the alliance scrapped plans to publish the traditional full post-meeting statement meant to crystallize NATO’s latest strategic stance.

On May 25, NATO will host the heads of state of all 28 member countries in what will be Trump’s first face-to-face summit with an alliance he bashed repeatedly while running for president. NATO traditionally organizes a meeting within the first few months of a new U.S. president’s term, but Trump has the alliance more on edge than any previous newcomer, forcing organizers to look for ways to make the staid affair more engaging.
“It’s kind of ridiculous how they are preparing to deal with Trump,” said one source briefed extensively on the meeting’s preparations. “It’s like they’re preparing to deal with a child — someone with a short attention span and mood who has no knowledge of NATO, no interest in in-depth policy issues, nothing,” said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “They’re freaking out.”

Still, despite these changes, experts are wary of how Trump will react to NATO meetings and their long-winded, diplomatic back-and-forth among dozens of heads of state, which can quickly balloon into hours of meandering discussions. One former senior NATO official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, described these meetings as “important but painfully dull.”
Rank-and-file diplomats always try to push for shorter, more efficient meetings at NATO. “It’s not so unusual that they strain to try to keep it interesting and short and not dragged down into details,” said Jim Townsend, who served as the Pentagon’s top NATO envoy until January. But what is unusual is the president.
“Even a brief NATO summit is way too stiff, too formal, and too policy heavy for Trump. Trump is not going to like that,” said Jorge Benitez, a NATO expert with the Atlantic Council, a Washington think tank.
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Another change: NATO traditionally publishes a formal readout, known as a declaration, after each major meeting or summit. While they’re often lathered in diplomatic drivel, declarations signal new strategies and key policy shifts that come out of closed-door meetings, giving direction to allies and the NATO bureaucracy — and showcasing alliance unity toward rivals like Russia, a former senior NATO official told FP.

This year, NATO has scrapped plans to publish a full formal meeting declaration. One NATO official said that’s because it’s not a full summit, like past major NATO gatherings in Warsaw in 2016 or Wales in 2014. “It’s not necessary to have another full declaration, as it’s not a full summit,” the official said. “This meeting is just much more focused.”

But behind closed doors, other officials are giving a different reason. NATO isn’t publishing a full declaration “because they’re worried Trump won’t like it,” another source said.
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Ultimately, to keep Trump on board, NATO will probably set out to sell those recent changes as a concession to Washington, even though “98 percent of the changes NATO undertook are because of Russia, not because of Trump,” Benitez said.

That might secure Trump a happy ending to this first meeting, but could spell more trouble down the road.

“They may give Trump credit, but privately many allies feel they’re being bullied into it,” Benitez said. “Trump’s approach to NATO is poisoning the relationship.”

One former NATO official said the agenda meant to mollify Trump appeared to amount to repackaging what NATO was already doing — increasing its defense spending and continuing to support U.S. efforts in Afghanistan and the counter-Islamic State campaign — in a new wrapper for the president.

“They think they’re fine because they’re going to put old wine in new bottles,” one former senior U.S. official told FP. Whether Trump buys it remains to be seen.
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More at the link
http://foreignpolicy.com/2017/05/15...sidents-first-visit-alliance-europe-brussels/
 
T

TarNaru33

Banned
Lol... if one could die from embarrassment, I think a lot of people would of died by now.

Keeping it short and sweet for our stupid president in hopes he is able to fully comprehend it.
 
F

Foffy

Banned
It's rather sickening to know the lengths people are going to accommodate Trump.

You would figure the presidency would grow into these responsibilities, not have them compromised and watered down.

Fuck the orange con man.
 
F

FunkyMunkey

Banned
don't blame them. gotta trim it down for the pathetic orange shitstain. hopefully they get it down to a elementary school level too so he at least understands it if he manages to make it through
 
M

Ms.Galaxy

Member
Said it before and I'll say it again, "All that goodwill and decent respect we had gained in the International Community for the past eight years thanks to Obama after the international embarrassment that was Bush Jr. is gone now."

Jesus Christ, the fact that our allies have to treat our president like an actual toddler makes this feel more embarrassing than Bush Jr.
 
S

Smellycat

Member
I hope the speakers use puppets to explain their speeches

Or just have the normal speeches and have Melissa Mccarthy dressed as Sean Spicer using props to explain the speeches to Trump
 
W

WeAreStarStuff

Member
Yet Trump is smarter than the millions that voted for him since he was able to con them so easily. Truly we live in the age of anti intellectualism.
 
S

Sidewinder

Member
Lol, I knew it would be an absolute shitshow once he would have to go abroad to summits like G20 and stuff like that, with Trump being way over his head and international media all over the place, but this is hilarious!
 
F

fluffydelusions

Member
Netherscourge said:
They better replace those steps with ramps too.
Click to expand...

0qHaK3X.gif
 
E

Exile20

Member
Foffy said:
It's rather sickening to know the lengths people are going to accommodate Trump.

You would figure the presidency would grow into these responsibilities, not have them compromised and watered down.

Fuck the orange con man.
Click to expand...

He is still extremely powerful, even if he is a child.
 
S

SoundofSilence

Member
This is the summation of his entire life if you just replace NATO with anything:

“It’s like they’re preparing to deal with a child — someone with a short attention span and mood who has no knowledge of anything, no interest in in-depth policy issues, nothing.”
 
E

Extollere

Sucks at poetry
They're probably all fucking scared. The leader of the free world, the biggest economy, the largest military, and thousands of nuclear weapons has a tiny attention span, a huge ego, a hot temper, and a complete disregard for the consequences of action. He threatens relationships on a whim and can't be trusted to tell the truth or enter into agreements of good faith. I'd be scared shitless too if I represented a country in a more vulnerable and dependent situation.
 
A

Ascheroth

Member
Literally turning an international meeting into kindergarten, just so that the american president can keep up.
Amazing.
 
E

exmachina64

Banned
Ms.Galaxy said:
Said it before and I'll say it again, "All that goodwill and decent respect we had gained in the International Community for the past eight years thanks to Obama after the international embarrassment that was Bush Jr. is gone now."

Jesus Christ, the fact that our allies have to treat our president like an actual toddler makes this feel more embarrassing than Bush Jr.
Click to expand...

Just be prepared for that to be the case every eight years.
 
The Elite

The Elite

BOSS
It's so ridiculous I can't believe it but at the same time it's probably true because it's Trump.

What a fucking joke.
 
L

LegendofJoe

Member
This is why I want Eric Garcetti to be our next president. He would thrive in the deep policy discussions they typically have in meetings like this. He's everything that Trump is not, i.e. he'd be one of the most intelligent and educated presidents in our history.
 
U

Username1198

Member
I'd be legitimately embarrasssed if I was the orange moron, but he has no shame. I bet he will spin it as "we had a tremendous meeting, with NATO, tremendous. They respect me, bigly so, and the meeting was short because I'm busy, very busy."
 
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