The annual NATO summit this week was marred by multiple reports of anonymous diplomats fretting that its host, President Joe Biden, was mentally incapable of running the country and would soon vacate the presidency of NATO’s most important country.
Unnamed European officials described themselves as to Politico journalists as “alarmed” in a report published on Thursday, while Ian Bremmer, president of the Eurasia Group, cited rumors that Biden had an episode in which he did not recognize someone he was believed to know well and would repeat himself often in interactions with other world leaders.
The reports preceded rumors published in the D.C. outlet Axios that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, a premier guest at the NATO summit, was watching with mounting concern the increasingly frenetic debate in America about Biden’s capacity to fulfill his duties. The report preceded Biden referring to Zelensky as “[Russian] President [Vladimir] Putin” in a public engagement on Thursday.
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Later that night, in a press conference American media described as a “big boy” press conference as he was expected to take questions, Biden referred to Vice President Kamala Harris as “Vice President Trump,” again concerning onlookers.
Prior to those gaffes, however, NATO summit attendees were already speaking candidly of “alarm” surrounding Biden’s mental state.
“It’s a very weird feeling to be in Europe listening to the president of the United States, and you’re more stressed about whether he will go off script than being excited to listen to the leader of the free world,” someone described as “a senior European diplomat” told Politico in a report published on Thursday. “You’re worried if he knows which direction he’s going or whether he’s going to fall or what he’s going to forget or if he’ll say ‘North Korea’ when he meant ‘South Korea.’ It’s just a weird experience.”
Politico described European leaders at the summit as “alarmed” and “increasingly concerned” about both Biden and the potential return of former President Donald Trump to the White House, who prioritized confronting delinquent NATO countries about not meeting the defense spending thresholds they had committed to as part of the military alliance.
Bremmer, speaking to MSNBC on Tuesday, said he had found the atmosphere at the NATO summit similarly tense. Attendees at the summit reportedly said that, on one occasion, Biden was “not recognizing someone that he knew quite well when he came up and introduced him” and kept “repeating the same anecdote twice in an individual meeting.”
The anonymous reports differed dramatically from the public comments that world leaders made at the summit.
“[Biden’s] depth of experience, his thoughtfulness, his steadfastness on the greatest issues and challenges of our time is a credit to the work that we’re all doing together,” radical leftist Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who had his own challenging summit due to Canada’s failure to meet up to its defense commitments, praised.
“I talked with President Biden, and there is no doubt that everything is ok,” another close ally, Polish President Andrzej Duda, said at the summit.
The NATO summit has brought domestic American worries about Biden that began during June’s presidential debate onto the international stage. As much of that debate focused on domestic issues, Democrats expressed growing, and increasingly public concern, about Biden’s ability to handle issues such as abortion and Medicare, which he claimed to “beat” during the debate.
“I support Roe v. Wade, which had three trimesters,” Biden attempted to explain at the debate. “The first time is between a woman and a doctor. Second time is between a doctor and an extreme situation. A third time is between the doctor, I mean, between the women and the state.”
The concern surrounding Biden – diverting attention from a particularly aggressive NATO summit declaration that condemned communist China and North Korea as threats, in addition to its usual commitments to confront Russia – is a far cry from the promises Biden made as a presidential candidate to restore global trust in America.
“America is back. America is back. Diplomacy is back at the center of our foreign policy,” Biden proclaimed in February 2021, implying that America had lost its position in the world under Trump. “We will repair our alliances and engage with the world once again, not to meet yesterday’s challenges, but today’s and tomorrow’s.”
“The adults are back” became a derisive rallying cry for Democrats on foreign policy following Trump’s defeat. It was quickly drowned out by mounting foreign policy disasters under Biden, from the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban to “Operation Prosperity Guardian,” a Pentagon mission allegedly intended to protect commercial ships from Houthi attacks in the Red Sea.
Politico noted that one anonymous official at the summit lamented that Biden’s potential shortcomings could hurt America’s actions internationally.
“We’re really concerned that the world will essentially be leaderless for the next several months, and then we don’t know what comes after that,” the official was quoted as saying.
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