Frida Ghitis, a former CNN producer and correspondent, is a world affairs columnist. She is a frequent opinion contributor to CNN and The Washington Post and a columnist for World Politics Review. The opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author; view more opinion articles on CNN.

(CNN) Before you woke up this morning, President Donald Trump had already insulted America's closest friends at a gathering of NATO allies in Brussels, Belgium. European leaders said they were expecting a bad summit, but said Trump made it even worse than they feared.

The annual summits used to be an opportunity to reaffirm unity among close friends and work privately to resolve differences in order to solidify an alliance whose success in preserving peace and prosperity is unmatched. Then came Trump, who detonated a hand grenade of discord and acrimony, claiming America's allies are taking advantage of the United States, twisting the facts and doing his best to shout the disagreements over a social media megaphone.

That raises the question, what exactly is Trump trying to do?

If you take Trump at his word, he is simply trying to keep the allies from abusing America's largesse. He wants them to pay more for their own defense. He might even argue that his goal is to make NATO stronger. But a closer look at the facts suggests Trump is trying to achieve precisely the opposite. The President, it appears, is trying to break NATO. He is exaggerating and distorting the financial facts and he is doing it so loudly that he seems to be preparing his supporters at home for a decision that would shake the world and make it a much more dangerous place: withdrawing the United States from the North Atlantic Alliance. That, in effect, would destroy NATO.

Incidentally, that would constitute a triumph for Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin, who has publicly stated the obvious, that it would be very good for Russia if NATO were "falling apart."