Rutte visits White House to soothe Trump before NATO
Get the Geopolitics newsletter
Daily geopolitics — wars, elections, sanctions, the diplomatic moves that move markets. Free.
- Mark Rutte is meeting Trump at the White House on Wednesday, two weeks before the NATO summit in Turkey, with keeping the U.S. in the 32-member alliance his chief mission
- Trump's NATO frustrations have sharpened since the Iran war, with allies ignoring his call to help restart oil trade through the shuttered Strait of Hormuz — prompting renewed threats to leave the 77-year-old alliance
- Pete Hegseth announced a six-month Pentagon review of U.S. forces in Europe and criticized allies for refusing to let the U.S. use European bases to attack Iran
- NATO allies were not consulted before the U.S. and Israel launched the war against Iran on Feb. 28, and several have openly criticized Trump's strategy
- Trump last year pressured NATO members to agree to invest 5% of GDP annually on defense by 2035 — a goal Rutte publicly credits to him
- Rutte's strategy of public flattery has included calling Trump "daddy" at last year's summit and sending fawning, randomly-capitalized text messages that Trump shared on social media
Why it matters: The Pentagon's six-month review of U.S. force levels in Europe — combined with Trump's renewed threats to leave NATO — means the alliance's 32 members face concrete uncertainty about American commitments heading into the Turkey summit, not just rhetorical friction. Rutte's flattery-based containment is now the primary mechanism preventing a formal U.S. withdrawal threat.
Ask SkimNews
