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

NATO had a fractious summit in Turkey this week, with U.S. President Donald Trump threatening to sever trade with one ally and annex the territory of another. But the alliance’s boss was full of praise for the man he called “dear Donald.”

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte thanked Trump, describing his push to get NATO nations to increase defense spending as a “staggering” achievement and a “huge win” for the military alliance.

Rutte’s approach of using flattery to win over the president prompted some to question whether this had delivered any tangible benefits for the alliance.

Over the course of two days in Ankara, Trump threatened to sever trade ties with NATO member Spain over defense spending, said he was very disappointed with NATO’s response to the U.S. war with Iran and reignited his feud with Denmark, another member of the alliance, over Greenland.

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

Sat beside one another during a bilateral meeting on Wednesday, Rutte lauded “dear Donald” for getting Canada and European nations to spend an additional $1.2 trillion on defense during his two terms in his office, saying he called this the “Trump trillion.”

Rutte used this term during a visit to the Oval Office late last month, where he presented Trump with charts that detailed increased spending by NATO nations.

NATO’s chief also interjected on Wednesday when Trump sharply criticized former U.S. presidents for failing to get the rest of NATO to ramp up their defense spending commitments: “But you did what Eisenhower started trying to do … And all the other presidents, none of them were successful. You were the first one. It’s your win.”

Trump replied: “That’s why I like him.”

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

Marion Messmer, program director for international security at Chatham House, told CNBC that her takeaway from the Ankara summit was that there is no one person who can manage Trump over the long-term, and Europe is better off focusing on strengthening its own security instead.

“While Rutte manages to remain in Trump’s good books with his mix of flattery and submissiveness, other NATO leaders are increasingly irritated with what they perceive to be tasteless behaviour,” Messmer said via email.

In part, Messmer said that this is because Rutte hasn’t managed to transform his personal relationship with Trump into a benefit for NATO, as the U.S. president remains obviously dissatisfied with the military alliance.

“There is a concern that Rutte’s approach to managing Trump does not help the alliance as a whole and might send the wrong message to Russia, that European states feel weak without the US and are willing to bind the US to Europe no matter what,” she added.

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

A day earlier, Finnish President Alexander Stubb had sought to defuse any tensions regarding Trump’s Greenland comments. Speaking to CNBC, Stubb said: “Be more Arctic, be more cool. If it is about Arctic security, we have seven countries that are Arctic nations in the alliance.”

He added: “Finland has trained 1 million soldiers in Arctic conditions; we basically live in Arctic conditions. Let’s keep that in mind. Let’s, you know, continue the process that the Danes, the Americans and the Greenlanders have.”

Rutte and Trump’s “bromance” was a topic of conversation during last year’s NATO summit in the Netherlands, when the alliance made history by announcing a defense spending hike to 5% of individual members’ GDPs by 2035.

At that time, journalists questioned Rutte’s approach and particularly his description of the U.S. president as “Daddy,” something Rutte later described as “a question of taste.”

A year on in Ankara, a reporter asked NATO’s secretary general about his “self-respect” during a news conference, who suggested he had failed to come to the defense of NATO nations threatened by Trump during the summit.

Rutte said that he was keen to “acknowledge when praise is due, and I think we should praise Donald Trump for the fact that NATO is so much stronger.” He added that Europe’s increased defense spending made the continent “more relevant” to the U.S. as a strategic partner.

Not everyone was critical of Rutte’s approach to managing Trump at the summit, however.

“Mark Rutte is secretary general of NATO, not secretary general of the European Union, not the president of the Commission, his only job is to keep [the] alliance running,” Latvian President Edgars Rinkēvičs told CNBC’s Steve Sedgwick on Wednesday.

“His only job is to [keep the] trans-Atlantic relationship intact. His only job is to do whatever it takes to have this alliance working, and he does [a] great job,” he added.