NATO Secretary Common Mark Rutte greets Donald Trump, President of United States throughout a welcome ceremony of allied heads of state and authorities, on July 08, 2026 in Ankara, Turkey.
Win Mcnamee | Getty Pictures Information | Getty Pictures
NATO had a fractious summit in Turkey this week, with U.S. President Donald Trump threatening to sever commerce with one ally and annex the territory of one other. However the alliance’s boss was filled with reward for the person he referred to as “expensive Donald.”
NATO Secretary Common Mark Rutte thanked Trump, describing his push to get NATO nations to extend protection spending as a “staggering” achievement and a “big win” for the army alliance.
Rutte’s strategy of utilizing flattery to win over the president prompted some to query whether or not this had delivered any tangible advantages for the alliance.
Over the course of two days in Ankara, Trump threatened to sever commerce ties with NATO member Spain over protection spending, mentioned he was very upset with NATO’s response to the U.S. conflict with Iran and reignited his feud with Denmark, one other member of the alliance, over Greenland.
However for Rutte, Trump had solely reward, describing him as a “nice chief” and the alliance’s “greatest asset.”
Sat beside each other throughout a bilateral assembly on Wednesday, Rutte lauded “expensive Donald” for getting Canada and European nations to spend a further $1.2 trillion on protection throughout his two phrases in his workplace, saying he referred to as this the “Trump trillion.”
Rutte used this time period throughout a go to to the Oval Workplace late final month, the place he introduced Trump with charts that detailed elevated spending by NATO nations.
NATO Secretary Common Mark Rutte exhibits a chart throughout a gathering with US President Donald Trump within the Oval Workplace of the White Home in Washington, DC, on June 24, 2026.
Aaron Schwartz | Afp | Getty Pictures
NATO’s chief additionally interjected on Wednesday when Trump sharply criticized former U.S. presidents for failing to get the remainder of NATO to ramp up their protection spending commitments: “However you probably did what Eisenhower began attempting to do … And all the opposite presidents, none of them have been profitable. You have been the primary one. It is your win.”
Trump replied: “That is why I like him.”
The back-and-forth was a continuation of the strategy Rutte, a seasoned diplomat referred to as a consensus builder throughout his practically 14 years as Dutch prime minister, has taken since changing into NATO chief in late 2024.
Marion Messmer, program director for worldwide safety at Chatham Home, informed CNBC that her takeaway from the Ankara summit was that there’s nobody particular person who can handle Trump over the long-term, and Europe is best off specializing in strengthening its personal safety as an alternative.
“Whereas Rutte manages to stay in Trump’s good books together with his mixture of flattery and submissiveness, different NATO leaders are more and more irritated with what they understand to be tasteless behaviour,” Messmer mentioned through e mail.
Partly, Messmer mentioned that it is because Rutte hasn’t managed to rework his private relationship with Trump right into a profit for NATO, because the U.S. president stays clearly dissatisfied with the army alliance.
“There’s a concern that Rutte’s strategy to managing Trump doesn’t assist the alliance as a complete and may ship the unsuitable message to Russia, that European states really feel weak with out the US and are keen to bind the US to Europe it doesn’t matter what,” she added.
What did different NATO leaders say?
In distinction to NATO’s Rutte, Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen struck a defiant tone following Trump’s newest push for U.S. management of Greenland, a self-governing Danish territory.
A day earlier, Finnish President Alexander Stubb had sought to defuse any tensions relating to Trump’s Greenland feedback. Talking to CNBC, Stubb mentioned: “Be extra Arctic, be extra cool. Whether it is about Arctic safety, we now have seven international locations which are Arctic nations within the alliance.”
He added: “Finland has educated 1 million troopers in Arctic circumstances; we principally reside in Arctic circumstances. Let’s maintain that in thoughts. Let’s, , proceed the method that the Danes, the Individuals and the Greenlanders have.”
Latvia’s president: Rutte does a ‘nice job’
At the moment, journalists questioned Rutte’s strategy and significantly his description of the U.S. president as “Daddy,” one thing Rutte later described as “a query of style.”
U.S. President Donald Trump meets with NATO Secretary Common Mark Rutte for bilateral talks at Beştepe Presidential Compound through the NATO Summit on July 08, 2026 in Ankara, Turkey.
Win Mcnamee | Getty Pictures Information | Getty Pictures
A yr on in Ankara, a reporter requested NATO’s secretary common about his “self-respect” throughout a information convention, who recommended he had failed to come back to the protection of NATO nations threatened by Trump through the summit.
Rutte mentioned that he was eager to “acknowledge when reward is due, and I believe we should always reward Donald Trump for the truth that NATO is a lot stronger.” He added that Europe’s elevated protection spending made the continent “extra related” to the U.S. as a strategic companion.
Not everybody was crucial of Rutte’s strategy to managing Trump on the summit, nonetheless.
“Mark Rutte is secretary common of NATO, not secretary common of the European Union, not the president of the Fee, his solely job is to maintain [the] alliance working,” Latvian President Edgars Rinkēvičs informed CNBC’s Steve Sedgwick on Wednesday.
“His solely job is to [keep the] trans-Atlantic relationship intact. His solely job is to do no matter it takes to have this alliance working, and he does [a] nice job,” he added.
