The Room Was Managing Him

Trump came home bragging about NATO’s love. Allies left Turkey planning for an America they can no longer trust.

By the time Donald Trump prepared to leave Turkey, the world had been given the full touring production: the NATO summit as tribute dinner, Ukraine as a distressed mineral portfolio, Syria as strongman restoration theater, Iran as a personal betrayal with missiles, Greenland as an imperial fixation with a real-estate brochure, and American foreign policy as one long interrupted sentence trying to remember where it left its verb.

Even the departure became a parable. Reporters asked why there had been a plane change and whether there had been a security concern. No, Trump said, no issue, no security concern; they had simply sent the other plane ahead so people at the Air Force base could see it. Then a reporter asked why the press had been told to close the window blinds, and Trump said perhaps they were on a “dangerous leg,” because of “the bad guys,” the same thing Iran might have been thinking of trying. Was there a credible threat? Trump said he has threats all the time, that he is number one on Iran’s list, and then reassured the press corps with the words every traveler longs to hear from the man controlling the itinerary: “If I go, you go.”

There it was. No security issue. Also, maybe Iran. No danger. Also, close the blinds. Enjoy the flight.