Donald Trump bonds with Recep Tayyip Erdogan, ditches European allies

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President Trump chatted up Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as they headed for a group photo at the NATO summit in Belgium Wednesday — choosing the authoritarian leader’s company over that of America’s longtime European allies.

Trump and Erdogan — who on Monday put his son-in-law in charge of a new combined ministry of treasury and finance, further solidifying his power — were among the last to take the stage for the group photo.

And unlike the NATO summit in May 2017 — where the president famously shoved Montenegro’s Prime Minister Dusko Markovic out of the way so he could be in the front row of the group photo — other leaders gave him plenty of space and he stood alone, front and center.

After the summit in Brussels, Trump was to stay for three days in the UK — where massive protests were expected.

He then will head to Helsinki for a sitdown with Russian strongman Vladimir Putin, a meeting the president said could be the easiest of his trip abroad.

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