"It would be wonderful, as we were discussing just a little while ago, if North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and our country could get along with Russia", Trump said. China abstained from voting, a development Trump chalked it up to his meetings last weekend with President Xi Jinping.
For a man known to adopt policy positions more out of convenience or circumstance than principle, Donald Trump has made a tidal wave of public reversals on major issues over the past two days - some of them bedrock campaign promises.
Bannon has been sidelined in the White House after clashes with Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, and the President's children, including his daughter (and Kushner's wife) Ivanka, all of whom are inclined to be more globally engaged because of their background and their business interests.
In signing an order to start the process, Mr Trump accepted that U.S. taxpayers will have to cover the initial funding - but says the money will be somehow recouped from Mexicans.
And so it is - these days - with Russian Federation and China.
"It's not easy to get a 10 percent decline in your popularity when you start out with really just your core supporters viewing your job being done well to begin with" - particularly, he adds, if those supporters are already used to Trump's views on policy being easily changeable.
Days after his administration had seemed to accept an 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.
A senior administration official - speaking as Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was in Moscow for hard talks on Syria - pointed the finger of blame at Russian Federation for an alleged coup attempt during October's election. "And especially in times of uncertainty, unpredictability, as we see today, it's even more important to have a strong NATO alliance bonding North America and Europe together". "Many have not been doing that", he said. But Washington said Wednesday that it had seen credible reports of Moscow's backing.
"I don't know Putin", he said on Wednesday at the joint press conference with Mr Stoltenberg. "At the right time everyone will come to their senses & there will be lasting peace!" he tweeted on Thursday morning.
"It's unlikely that we will build a wall or physical barrier from sea to shining sea", he said in April. (Her term as a board member extends until 2024.) "No, not toast", he said, indicating that he is open to re-appointing her to another term.
Democrats have jumped on Mr. Trump's flip-flopping on China.
The "realities" that Trump faces include North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's accelerating pursuit of nuclear and missile technology. His top diplomat offered a similarly grim assessment from the other side of the globe after meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow. I complained about that a long time ago and they made a change, and now they do fight terrorism.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And you think that war going in the right direction, though?
- Realized the U.S. Export-Import Bank is worth keeping around. As a candidate - even one for president - you can say and do pretty much whatever you like without much outcome. Baker believes China still manages its currency in a way that perpetuates huge trade imbalances with the USA and hurts US manufacturing.
JUDY WOODRUFF: But that is - I think most observers now see Afghanistan as slipping back into chaos.
Tillerson said the US and Russian Federation also agree that North Korea must be "de-nuclearized" and that there needs to be more communication between senior staffers from the former Cold War powers "both at a diplomatic and military level".
"Well they, I think they're grand champions at manipulation of currency", he said in February.
And the only thing Beijing might think was worse, she said, would be a unified and US-allied Korean Peninsula on the border.
Changing positions is hardly new for Donald Trump.
"I like her, I respect her", he said, adding that they had met in the Oval Office since he became president. The two authoritarian governments support each other on major foreign policy problems, dislike domestic protest and see the United States in a similar way.
