NATO’s Rutte wins praise from Trump — but raises eyebrows in Europe

NATO held a tense summit in Türkiye this week; US President Donald Trump has threatened to cut off trade with one ally and annex the territory of another. But the alliance boss was full of praise for the man he called “dear Donald”.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte thanked Trump and called his effort to get NATO countries to increase defense spending an “astonishing” success and a “huge win” for the military alliance.

Rutte’s approach to flattery to win over the president has led some to question whether it has brought any tangible benefit to the alliance.

During his two days in Ankara, Trump threatened to sever trade ties with NATO member Spain over its defense spending, said he was deeply disappointed with NATO’s response to the US war against Iran, and reignited hostilities with Denmark, another member of the alliance, over Greenland.

But Trump had only praise for Rutte, describing him as a “great leader” and the alliance’s “greatest asset.”

Sitting side by side at Wednesday’s bilateral meeting, Rutte praised “dear Donald” for getting Canada and European countries to spend an additional $1.2 trillion on defense during his two terms in office, calling it the “Trump trillion.”

Rutte used the term during a visit to the Oval Office late last month, where he presented Trump with charts detailing rising spending by NATO countries.

The NATO chief also intervened on Wednesday after Trump harshly criticized former US presidents for failing to persuade the rest of NATO to increase their defense spending commitments: “But you did what Eisenhower tried to do… And all the other presidents, none of them succeeded. You were the first. This is your victory.”

Trump responded: “That’s why I love him.”

The back-and-forth was a continuation of the approach taken since by Rutte, a veteran diplomat known as a consensus builder during nearly 14 years as Dutch prime minister. to be NATO chief in late 2024.

Marion Messmer, Chatham House’s program director for international security, told CNBC her takeaways from the Ankara summit were: nobody Who can manage Trump in the long term, and Europe would be better off focusing on strengthening its own security instead.

“While Rutte has managed to stay in Trump’s good books with a mixture of sycophancy and obsequiousness, other NATO leaders are increasingly disturbed by what they perceive as unsavory behavior,” Messmer said via email.

Messmer said this was partly because Rutte had failed to turn his personal relationship with Trump to the benefit of NATO, as the US president was clearly unhappy with the military alliance.

“There are concerns that Rutte’s approach to managing Trump will not benefit the alliance as a whole and could send the wrong message to Russia, that European states feel weak without the US and are willing to tie the US to Europe no matter what,” he added.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, unlike NATO’s Rutte, struck a defiant tone following Trump’s latest push for US control of Greenland, Denmark’s self-governing territory.

CNBC’s question When Steve Sedgwick asked whether Denmark would be prepared to defend Greenland militarily in the event of an attack, Frederiksen replied: “We are ready to defend every square inch of NATO, including our own territory.”

Rutte and Trump’s ““Brotherhood” was a hot topic at last year’s NATO summit in the Netherlands; The alliance made history by announcing that it would increase defense spending by up to 5% of individual members’ GDP by 2035.