Well, Angela Merkel picked up the newspaper this morning and found out that the man who was mocking her is under investigation by the FBI, a liar, and won't even send his Secretary of State to meet with NATO but is instead going to head off to Russia for a meeting Putin and his cronies. Talking about showing the world where our priorities are--if this doesn't do it nothing will...

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/rex-tillerson-skip-key-nato-summit-plans-travel-russia-n736226

America's smaller European allies have expressed concern about President Donald Trump's mixed signals on the U.S. commitment to protect them from Russia.

The uncertainty threatened to deepen late Monday when U.S. officials said that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson planned to skip what would have been his first official meeting with NATO in April. On Tuesday, the State Department said Tillerson has a scheduling conflict and suggested alternative dates that morning.

Moving the date would require a 28-nation consensus.

A NATO official told NBC News "we are in contact with the State Department on scheduling."

Tillerson will travel later in the month to a series of unspecified meetings in Russia, a State Department spokesman confirmed to NBC News.

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Rex Tillerson skipping NATO meeting to host China president 0:22
Acting spokesman Mark Toner said Tillerson would meet with all of the alliance's members Wednesday when the Global Coalition To Counter ISIS in Washington. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg will also attend.

"While (Tillerson) won't specifically be discussing in the group session all of NATO's equities, obviously he will have the opportunity to do pull asides with many of these countries," Toner said.

The last time a Secretary of State did not attend a NATO Foreign Ministerial meeting was in 2003 and 1999.

Tillerson's trip to Moscow was not confirmed by the Russian side. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova wrote on her official Facebook page that "we will not be confirming or denying this information at this stage."

Tillerson's decision will likely raise eyebrows among some of the United States' European partners.

Close to the Russian border, some people fear that Trump's thawing relationship with President Vladimir Putin could leave them exposed. Like NATO, Moscow has been ramping its military exercises and also annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.

Related: Trump's NATO Stance Has Town Miles From Russia 'Ready for War'

"Donald Trump's administration is making a grave error that will shake the confidence of America's most important alliance and feed the concern that this administration simply too cozy with Vladimir Putin," said U.S. Rep. Eliot L. Engel, D- New York, who was one of the first to respond to Tillerson's decision.

He added: "I cannot fathom why the administration would pursue this course except to signal a change in American foreign policy that draws our country away from western democracy's most important institutions and aligns the United States more closely with the autocratic regime in the Kremlin."

He also labeled the move "an absolute disgrace."

Just because you say Trump has more Russian contacts without proof is like a fart in a whirlwind. However, as a private businessman lawfully doing business is not against the law. Of course selling Russia 20% of our uranium as Secretary of state and reaping millions to your personal foundation is not even suspicious.

I phoned several of my old (age) friends today, most retired servicemen like myself - retired in the late 70s. I asked each one of them if they had to make a choice between Putin and Democrat politicians which of the Two would you trust first. Every single one of them had more confidence in Putin. All of them were combat veterans. I, too, have more confidence in Putin than Obama, Pelose, Dodd, Frankin, Watters, Schumer and the whole lot of them with one exception. I never thought I'd live to say something that sounds so absurd but true.