NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has met US President Donald Trump at the White House to prepare for the alliance’s summit in Ankara next month, using the visit to credit Washington with driving up European and Canadian defence spending, NATO said.
Rutte told reporters at the White House that European allies and Canada were “now on a trajectory to equalise their spending with the United States,” describing the gap as a problem that had persisted “since Eisenhower” and crediting Trump with resolving it.
He said European and Canadian defence spending in 2025 was almost 20 per cent higher than the year before, and in the Oval Office presented charts showing more than one trillion dollars in cumulative extra core defence spending by those allies since 2016, alongside figures on how European defence industry has supported tens of thousands of jobs in the United States.
The Secretary General said he had discussed NATO’s support for Ukraine and efforts to bring the war to a lasting peace, telling reporters that Ukraine was “doing so much better over the last five, six months than before,” which he attributed in part to American help. During the visit Rutte also met members of Congress on Capitol Hill, continuing the round of meetings ahead of the summit.
Closing his trip with an appearance at the Atlantic Council, Rutte set out what he expects from the Ankara meeting, saying the alliance would show it was delivering on the commitments made at The Hague last year, which he summarised as “transformation in defence investment, revolution in defence industry, affirmation of our enduring support to Ukraine.” The Hague summit in 2025 committed allies to a steep rise in defence spending, setting a path toward 3.5 per cent of GDP on core defence by 2035, a target NATO has since pressed members to meet.
You have to manage trump, we all know that but I can’t help feeling the more sycophantic we get to ‘daddy’ the more it demeans us all.
I agree, Rutte makes me want to leave NATO, he is now causing the Trump problem not solving it. If trump wants to leave NATO let him try.
Spot on the sycophancy is not just becoming self defeating it is be ominous damn right dangerous, Trumps reaction was contemptuous and disinterested at best. Making Europe seem weak, thankful and reliant on the US only makes the man baby even more derisory of its relevance and power and believing it simply exists to serve and service his needs and thus when it doesn’t do as told like good client states should more openly hostile and willing to confront its members. Meanwhile a state that is being bled dry by a small Country he dismissed as defeated, has his unswerving respect because it essentially ignores and despises him but has lots of nukes. It’s all he understands and encouraging him to treat you with contempt by appearing weak and merely kowtowing and feeding his ego, if it ever worked sure doesn’t any more.
Worse still if you take the knee to a tyrant you only bolster their standing amongst the ‘home town crowd’ and as the guy is falling apart at home at almost every turn that is a stupid act of self harm especially this close to the mid terms and you can bet it being his only remaining card in his view he will further exploit foreign adventures and the mythical aura he thinks he creates for himself amongst the faithful, of foreigners bowing to the all powerful Emperor even further. That has unbounded dangers attached at every level if we play along and simply emphasises potential lack of European unity in his mind likely encouraging more perhaps fatal missteps, playing unpredictable games on the very foundation of his tactics of divide and conquer. Stand up to him and he inevitably backs down and his supporters dwindle seeing his true weakness.
Rutte’s usefulness is seriously turning to dangerous mismanagement and a worrying liability and it’s time leaders told him so and reign his snivelling compliance in or tell him to go, otherwise we will never be respected. We have just lost one of the US’s most respected Generals in Europe slated for big things because he refused to do Trump/Hegseth’s bidding, that’s a warning, he is filling the forces hierarchy with weak sycophants, they won’t stop in their alienation tactics and only by Europeans (with others) taking a strong united front will we be able to stand up to their evil intent. Indeed it’s got to the point not that they want us to spend more money but they want us to fail and if we don’t know by now Trump will lie endlessly to project what he wants or paint the picture he wants to present we never will, from Iran to the reflection pool it’s his only trick to cover incompetence and ill intent. The days of the rest of us merely and meekly actually encouraging that image hoping to simply get through the short term are now well beyond their sell date, it’s a matter of whether we are up to the job of seeing it or not, because otherwise we have no long term future to defend at all because not only MAGA and the right wing or whatever replaces it in name wants to impose US hegemony the new class of ultra powerful US oligarchs are intent upon it to though working apart from Musk essentially in the background, but perhaps more dangerous than the clown that is Trump.
Someone has to sacrifice his dignity to save the Alliance. Trump will end, lets hope the Alliance survives him. If he does, we will be thankful to Rutte.
I agree. Rutte is just keeping NATO together.
That said NATO is now investing huge amounts of money and will soon be in a very healthy place.
I disagree, at this stage he is just embarrassing NATO and fuelling Trump. Best antidote to Trump is the Supreme Court confirming he can’t pull out of NATO without senate approval.
Everyone should just ignore Trump as much as possible moving forward. That seems to work best.
Best we deal with an attempted US withdrawal now while Russia is f**ked and China is distracted.
So everything was okay with NATO spending?
You need your head out of the sand TDS boy.
Anyone who understands how fked European defence was/is should be polishing his hairy beanbags.
Oh don’t be a Prima Donna that story goes far deeper than European complacency. The US for decades fed into Europe simply being compliant to US leadership in the Cold War, they wanted despite the carefully constructed superficial image of unity and equality, to be in a one to one power struggle with Russia, we just offered the added bulk in that game, just compliant followers of the real power broker. As stupid as it was it was hardly surprising therefore post the Soviet break up those constituent but effectively powerless pawns in NATO took to heart their powerlessness attitude and rebuilt it in the new mythical world of peace they thought they saw ahead. As the US didn’t want these lesser entities interfering in superpower games between the big boys initially they were not even too concerned about that as the opening of the East was a potential hotbed of disputes a strong United Europe might have caused the US serious problems and greatly feared breaches of US foreign policy and interests outside of its control. Equally the policy was, even as NATO expanded, to purposely refrain from making this look like a threat to Russia itself the very excuse Putin exploits today and many useful idiots still love to echo. Easy to look back and see the naivety of the policy but it was a difficult period of complexity and nuance and the US was as confused in its thinking and policies on the matter as anyone and at times was intent upon playing the role of singular power in the arguments involved and Europe too ready to allow them to. But if you are treated as essentially pawns in a bigger game you tend to get used to feeling powerless and the priority at that time was the crippling effect of bringing those former Soviet bloc Countries back to life and one can to a degree understand where Germany’s priorities in particular lay in that period.
We should have seen the light by and after 2014 but the banking crash was still a crippling factor that sadly dulled the realities and no one wanted to accept that the Cold War was returning. European wealth went into rebuilding Eastern Europe but also into feeding the very dollar economy as a reserve currency that fuelled the US ability to invest in its defence economy and further make money from selling its output to those very compliant European nations it so berates now and tells them how not buying its weapons will weaken NATO and anti US. Get the game the US plays yet?
I suspect that more and more over time, they will try to source non US equipment though.
That’s his thinking, but it’s obvious it’s become short sighted, the Worlds moved on, the dangers will go on beyond and wider than Trump and we better understand it. Weakness will not defend us against the consequences of what’s coming now or in the future, the die is cast, it’s just a matter of how the US pursues it now or beyond Trump the power brokers who’s interest is so benefited by it remain and the far right will return in some form empowered by them. They increasingly control the media and the economy and future political power I’m afraid.
Also ignoring that while he was Dutch prime minster he made large cuts to the Dutch defence budget !!!
The picture is far bigger than that, it’s a very naive game to think this ends with Trump it’s probably a pause at best. But yes he was playing for time and giving us time to re arm and initially that did seem the right move I agree, it may have arguably even worked for that first year, but that approach has been seen to no longer work with Trump he despises weakness and it will go worse for any one who tries it. It’s become a pointless liability indeed, it’s the US people, who support NATO, the US Congress who support NATO and the Supreme Court who hopefully stand by those sentiments while Trump, Vance and Hegseth want out and everything is to turn those restraining bodies in the US to their will, or alternatively create a scenario where they become powerless to stop it. NATO itself is merely an onlooker to that process that needs to be clear and as such appealing to Trump in this embarrassing way achieves nothing, what you do to keep the other elements onside the is vital ingredient. Telling Trump he is all powerful only weakens the very political elements especially amongst Republicans who simply won’t presently support him on this matter and why his efforts to confront them upon have failed so far before they get very far at all.
So be professional, confident and convincing to them, looking sycophantic to Trump is pointless and totally the wrong target, strengthening him can weaken the very powers that stop him, especially as he becomes a liability so building him and his ego and sense of power up is increasingly self harming for NATO and indeed all things. He has no interest whatsoever in what is said it’s a personal vendetta now, if he ever did then not going all in on Iran removed any last vestiges (we are his toy soldiers or valueless) and doing that would have been far more dangerous for NATO than its spokesperson being calm, cool, reasoned and self Confident to Trump and that likely would impress Congress and the US people rather more than the weak sycophancy and ego building that just makes NATO look like a hanger-on with no independent value in and of itself to many otherwise supportive in the US. Nor certainly as is a necessary future now as a perceived growing entity that it is vital for the US to retain as a powerful ally (even if it’s not in it) in this dangerous developing World. Because that’s a fact and the sooner more in the US learn it rather than thinking NATO is the white presidents burden the better. Does Rutte’s attitude do that, few commentators I read seem to think so these days.
Can’t you sober up before you post crap like this?
Say what you like about Trump, but European NATO were not pulling their weight and now they are on course to. About time they took care of their own defence after freeloading for 30 years. Lets hope Trump knocks Burnham into shape too, we need more spending desperately.
The TDS of many dipshits on this site blinds them to that obvious fact. Hate Trump all you like but stop making excuses for our worthless european allies who dragged their feet even after the 2022 russian invasion of ukraine
Exactly. I dont even like Trump myself. Its true though thats hes changed everything. I remember Trump going on to the Europeans about defence spending in like 2016, Merkle laughed at him. Well they aren’t laughing now.
People like to forget that Russia actually invaded Ukraine in 2014 not 2022.
We are 10 years late to re-arm.