NATO is the instrument whereby US policy becomes the policy of the "international community", and thus takes on added legitimacy. NATO is the diplomacy-laundering operation of the White House. In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
I feel that if NATO dissolves, then ever member is poorer because of it. Likely a totally American view point, but we need friends -- in sickness and in health.
Put it this way, America has fallen ill and now needs help. Presently seems to be having a difficult time help itself. Can NATO or Europe, somehow, help revitalize an old partner?
Whenever he says such a person or country has "shown leadership" or needs to "show leadership", it invariably means they did or should do what he wants.
In the Bushie up-is-down dictionary, "leadership" means "obedience". When locusts move on, they leave nothing behind