7 Things: Trump wants more from NATO — Walt Maddox jumps into the mud — Troy King doesn’t know the law but wants to be AG again — and more

1. Trump declares victory; American media declares they still don’t understand what is happening

— President Donald Trump left the NATO summit with a press conference declaring that he is more committed to NATO than ever and other countries will start meeting their obligations. He’s right when he talks about how years of asking nicely did not work.

— His brashness continues to be something the media can’t fathom, and unless he slaps Russian President Vladimir Putin across the mouth the media will continue to pretend he is compromised.

2. Telling NATO to have a big defense force is apparently “just what Putin wants“

— President Trump crashed the NATO summit and caused hurt feelings by telling other members to pony up what they agreed to pay and told Germany to stop chumming it up with Russia, which is apparently what Putin wanted.

— America’s Democrat leaders can’t shake the words “Trump” and “Russia” from their minds. Their Congressional leaders responded by saying Trump is “more loyal” to Russia than NATO.

3. Tuscaloosa Mayor Walt Maddox goes low on Governor Kay Ivey

— Inexplicably, Maddox tweeted what his campaign spokesman clearly thought was a sick burn about the governor’s age: “Her limited energy should be devoted to fixing Alabama’s problems and not political grandstanding. If Gov. Ivey really wants to discuss this, or anything else with Walt, she should come out of hiding and agree to debate.”

— While al.com might call this a sharply-worded retort to Ivey pointing out Maddox won’t support President Trump’s Supreme Court Justice pick, it was not — it was actually a cowardly insult meant to signal to Maddox’s supporters that it was time to get nasty.

4. Desperate Troy King enters day three of his futile effort to paint Attorney General Steve Marshall as “dirty”

— Monday King complained of PAC-to-PAC transfers involving the Republican Attorney General’s Association, Tuesday his angle was that the RAGA held an event at a hotel with a casino, Wednesday he filed a lawsuit to block Marshall from spending campaign money.

— King wants to be the Attorney General again, after being fired in 2010, but he is not very good at the whole law thing.

5. The federal government will meet the imposed deadline to reunite all children under five with their families

— All eligible children under five were required to be reunited by today, but the Trump Administration fought that deadline until a judge denied their request.

— Some children were not eligible for reunification due to the criminal record or unfitness of the individuals who brought them to the border.

6. Gov. Ivey ends the policy that allows sheriffs to personally profit from prisoner feeding funds

— Ivey said, “Public funds should be used for public purposes” as she ended a program that allowed multiple sheriffs to be embroiled in controversy, including Etowah County’s sheriff who legally pocketed enough for a beach house.

— Now, instead of the money going to the sheriffs it must go into county general funds or official accounts, but this doesn’t totally solve the problem and it may end up in court.

7. U.S. will soon be the world’s largest oil producer

— Russia and Saudi Arabia are about to be passed for the first time since 1974 due to fracking and horizontal drilling.

— But Russia and Saudi Arabia may respond by pumping more oil tapping reserves, or American companies could move from prime real estate to less fruitful oil opportunities.