U.S. President Donald Trump’s abrupt decisions on troop withdrawals in Syria and Afghanistan, which also prompted the resignation of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, have left America’s closest allies and officials at NATO headquarters feeling like victims of an ambush.
With no advance notice or preparation of Trump’s plans, allies committed by the North Atlantic Treaty to common defense have found themselves scouring Twitter for clues as to what the U.S. commander-in-chief might do next.
Particularly jarring for NATO was word of Trump’s plans for a withdrawal of 7,000 troops from Afghanistan, which have been described in news accounts, but the president himself has not even mentioned on Twitter — unlike the Syria withdrawal which he first announced with a tweet on Wednesday declaring victory against the Islamic State. Läs artikel