directly to his face by the nato chief, by the french president, by the german chancellor. in private, those comments, those concerns, even more severe. one particular concern is this. they will get in private assurances from senior u.s. officials, military officials, secretary of defense mattis, for instance. assurances that the u.s. remains committed to all of its commitments in europe. the trouble is that those assurances are often contradicted by the president's public comments. and their concern is that while there's been that dissonance for a year-and-a-half now under the president's administration, that those assurances that they hear from those senior national security officials mean less over time. they're concerned that the president feels emboldened somewhat to make decisions on his own, and he's shown that with the iran nuclear deal, for instance. with negotiations with north korea, where he has overruled his most senior national security advisers. in europe there is kernel do the