FB-009 · "Depends on your definition."

On 22 May 2026 NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte welcomed Trump's Truth Social announcement of 5,000 troops to Poland (one week after the Pentagon cancelled 4,000) and, in the same press appearance, observed that the trajectory of Europe becoming "less reliant on the US will continue." The Bureau places the two sentences side by side and proceeds to document the 17-month arc that led to them: the 5% of GDP demand at The Hague summit, the "depends on your definition" reading of Article 5, the Greenland threat to a NATO ally, the Spain-suspension proposal, the troop reductions in Germany and Romania, the Article 5 proposal against migration, and Europe's €800B ReArm Europe response. Four threads. One new species: Vespa transactionis atlanticus, the Subscription Wasp. A commendation to Pistorius ("this is not our war"), Macron ("unrealistic"), and Rutte ("will continue"), the three pieces of diplomatic euphemism most worth filing. A trade-off recorded.