Trump’s stunning u-turns on NATO, China, Russia and Syria

It was almost as if Donald Trump’s outsider presidential campaign never happened Wednesday as he rushed to embrace establishment political and national security positions he once publicly abhorred.

Within a few hours of extraordinary political shape-shifting, Trump abandoned stances that were at the bedrock of his establishment-bashing campaign. NATO, he said, is “no longer obsolete.” And he backed down a threat to brand China a currency manipulator.

Then, days after his administration had seemed to accept a ultra realist approach that would allow Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to remain in control of his shattered nation, Trump decried him as a “butcher” over chemical weapons attacks on civilians — fueling speculation he now advocates regime change.

That position, sure to antagonize Russia, came as the President adopted the most skeptical view he has yet displayed on the possibility of improving relations with the Kremlin, a position he once advanced as a candidate and that flew in the face of geopolitical realities and universal elite opinion in Washington…

MORE: Donald Trump flips on NATO, China, Russia and Syria – CNNPolitics.com