Bret Stephens: Brain-dead or not, NATO is essential

(AP Photo/ Evan Vucci) President Donald Trump shakes hands as he meets with French President Emmanuel Macron at Winfield House, Tuesday in London. With the conclusion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s 70th anniversary summit in London, it’s fair to say that Donald Trump thinks that most alliance members, starting with France and Canada, are a bunch of ungrateful and unhelpful freeloaders. Fair to say, also, that most of those members see Trump as an erratic, pompous, dangerous simpleton.

The tone of the summit was set several weeks ago, when Emmanuel Macron gave an interview to The Economist, warning of the “brain death” of NATO and wondering whether the alliance’s mutual defense…