On the same day that U.S. President Donald Trump met with NATO leaders at the opening ceremony of its new headquarters in Brussels, his predecessor Barack Obama was also in Europe.

Sharing a stage with his famous friend German Chancellor Angela Merkel at Berlin's Brandenburg Gate earlier last week on Thursday before Merkel headed to Brussels, Obama said, "The world is at a crossroads. In this new world we live in, we ca not isolate ourselves, we cannot hide behind a wall."

Obama did not mention his successor by name, but attacked his policies saying, "We have to push back against those trends that would violate human rights or suppress democracy or restrict individual freedoms."

Meanwhile Trump was in the cave of globalists. He used his first often-uncomfortable appearance in a NATO summit to demand other NATO members pay more towards their defense.

Trump, who came to the office some four months ago, had made the U.S. allies quite concerned with the "America First" rhetoric he adopted during his campaigns. Although he had described NATO as obsolete, he later reversed his position.

However, Trump kept stressing that the burden of defense costs needs to be shared.

He had reminded Merkel during her visit to Washington, "Germany owes vast sums of money to NATO, and the U.S. must be paid more for the powerful, and very expensive, defense it provides to Germany."

A day after the NATO summit, the Group of Seven (G-7) leaders were in Taormina, Italy, and they failed to bridge differences over climate change. According to their final communiqué, the U.S. was in the process of reviewing its policies on climate change, and thus is not in a position to join other countries in committing to the Paris Agreement.

Trump, who previously called global warming a hoax, tweeted that he would make a decision next week on whether to back the Paris Agreement.

However, Merkel was quick to comment, "The entire discussion about climate was very difficult, if not to say very dissatisfying. There are no indications whether the U.S. will stay in the Paris Agreement or not."

However, what Merkel said when she was back home was an enormous disclosure of the status of the transatlantic friendship, which has formerly seen the U.S. and Europe forge alliances on almost everything from international politics and defense to trade, regulations and culture.

Stopping at a beer tent during a political rally in Munich, she declared a new chapter in U.S.-European relations after a contentious meeting with Trump, saying that Europeans "must really take our fate into our own hands."

Merkel did not mention Trump by name, but it was obvious he was the one who triggered her comments as she said, "The times in which we can fully count on others are somewhat over, as I have experienced in the past few days."

Merkel was also thinking of the U.K. distancing itself from Europe after Brexit.

"Of course, we need to have friendly relations with the U.S. and with the U.K., and with other neighbors, including Russia," she said, but added, "We have to fight for our own future ourselves."

The emerging "special relationship" between the U.S. and Britain is no secret but the destiny of relations with Germany is in question, as it is also a key to the future of the European Union.

Merkel, who is going to have her fourth election this year, looks like she does not believe the U.S. is still a reliable partner. But is that a result of Trump's words and actions? To be honest, Obama, who implicitly criticized Trump in Berlin while standing next to Merkel, was the one who pursued a foreign policy in which Europe was no longer the focus of U.S. policy.

Asia and the Middle East continued to draw Washington's attention while Obama coddled new members of NATO in Eastern Europe during his term. Maybe it was a transatlantic dream a quarter century ago, but after the Cold War, the U.S. focus on Europe has moved to a more global perspective.

Still, Obama did not hesitate to push NATO for more contingency plans including the Baltic States and to deploy modern anti-missile systems, all of which tempted Russia. He was also quick to impose sanctions on Russia following the Ukrainian crisis.

Deploying more forces was not the right move to calm down Russian President Vladimir Putin and it certainly did not correspond with his so-called high intelligence.

Obama admitted that his biggest mistake was the lack of planning for the aftermath of Moammar Gadhafi's ousting in Libya. To add to this, his one step forward, two step backward policy in Syria was the worst. His refusal to intervene in Syria after he swore to do so if the Bashar Assad regime used chemical weapons against his own people was the first step in bringing the instability of the region into Europe.

The refugee flux bred rising Islamophobia in Europe, which would pave the way for extreme-right parties. The ensuing waves of refugees were caused by the spread of terror in the Middle East. And the rising terror was fed by the escalating civil war in Syria.

Maybe it was not the duty of the U.S. to act in North Africa and the Middle East. But the Obama administration urged the U.S. allies not to act by themselves. Every country had to follow his terribly wrong policy in Syria, and the obedient allies of the U.S. had to obey even if they had different opinions.

I mean, how can Trump be the one to blame if his election was the result of his predecessor's faults? Obama left the allies of the U.S. alone against Russia and the emerging threats in the Middle East. And yet, Merkel chose to stand side by side with him in Berlin just before the NATO summit in Brussels and the G7 meeting in Taormina, and that's a move that makes her look like she is the one who has had her own way.