LEADERSHIP: U.S. Asserts Authority at NATO in Stinging Criticism: Pompeo criticizes European capitulation to Iran, China, Russia. For 50 years the Europeans have felt that they could play footsie with the West’s enemies, because the U.S. was going to backstop them anyway. But as I keep pointing out, the chief characteristic of the Trump era is the renegotiation of a lot of post-World War II institutional arrangements, which is reasonable give that those arrangements are 70 years old.