NATO is having a low-key and uncomfortable 70th birthday non-celebration this year. There are concerns over the USA’s continued support given Trump’s legitimate concerns over other countries not pulling their weight financially. And deeper concerns over Turkey leaning towards Russia. Emmanuel Macron uptight about both of these then let fly about a ‘brain dead’ organisation. In response Trump over for the UK meeting slammed back at Macron for being disrespectful. So relations there not great and won’t have been improved by Trump threatening to slap 100% tariff on French goods in revenge for a new French digital tax targeting google, apple, facebook and amazon.
The world has gone mad. Or at least the tectonic plates are shifting around so much nothing feels stable any more.
NATO, 24 August 1949 11.42 am Washington, DC, is feeling the strain with tr Pluto square the Mars in Cancer exactly now (and through 2018/earlier in 2019 as well) – that brings frustrations and deadlocks. There’ll be a setback over the New Year and through January 2020 as tr Saturn opposes the Mars and then along with tr Pluto is conjunct the Jupiter in January as well. Quite what effect tr Saturn Pluto has in sitting on Jupiter is difficult to say. Tr Pluto conjunct Jupiter (late Jan 2020 to late 2021) is successful and upbeat though it can also go well over the score and be so pushily confident it backfires.
There will be changes of direction in 2020 as well with tr Uranus square the midheaven (time being accurate) from mid year onwards into 2021; along with tr Uranus trine the NATO Moon Saturn. Plus very intense discussions over future direction as tr Pluto trines the Mercury in 2020/21. Though there’s nothing terminal in that.
Trump certainly dislikes NATO with a composite Mars, Pluto, Saturn, Mercury in the relationship chart. There’ll be flashes of aggravation from mid 2020 onwards into 2021. Where it would really start to get seriously disruptive is IF (sigh) there’s a second Trump term – since in 2021/22 tr Uranus squares the composite Pluto, Saturn, Mercury and tr Pluto opposes the composite Sun.
Trump’s initial bro-romance with Macron was never destined to last for long. On Trump’s astrocartography Paris has his ‘I’m in charge’ Pluto on the midheaven and bossy Mars in the 10th. Not a good fit with Macron or indeed the French.
To complicate things even further, there’s some friction between France and Northeastern allies on how imminent the Russian military threat to NATO is. Macron seemingly downplayed this last week telling terrorism is more urgent matter. Jens Stoltenberg, a Norwegian and therefore coming from the only founder member actually boardering The Soviet Union during The Cold War elegantly responded that unfortunately NATO has not a luxury of choosing between the threats. But, in case The US continues the isolationalist policy beyond 2020, this will definitely not help as NATO countries will have to prioritize. In all honesty, I do not see this happening, but we’ll see.