NATO's Trump whisperer heads to the White House to soothe the president ahead of next month's summit

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte speaks after a meeting of NATO defense ministers at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Thursday, June 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

WASHINGTON — NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte laid on the flattery with President Donald Trump on Wednesday, pressing the case for a military alliance that the volatile U.S. leader has sharply criticized as the Pentagon reviews the size of the U.S. military footprint in Europe.

Trump has repeatedly slammed NATO, arguing the U.S. carries more than its fair share of military spending. But his grievances have been louder since the Iran war, as he fumed over the fact that some member countries ignored his call to help him restart oil trade through the shuttered Strait of Hormuz.

“They weren’t too nice to us in our recent little military skirmish,” Trump said of NATO allies as he introduced Rutte during their Oval Office meeting.

Subsequently pressed on what key U.S. allies could do to get back on his good side, Trump responded, “Just be loyal.”

“We don’t need their money -- we don’t need anything,” the president added. “We have the most powerful military in the world by far. But I just want loyalty.”

Trump has renewed his threats to leave the 77-year-old alliance, raising the stakes before the NATO leaders’ summit in Turkey next month. But Rutte, who has become known as a Trump whisperer for his ability to charm the president, took on the now-familiar role of attempting to appease him anew.

Rutte pushed back gently against Trump’s complaints, saying, “I know there have been isolated cases about which you are really disappointed, but generally speaking, your European allies have been there with you.”

He also noted that 4,000 to 5,000 U.S. planes took off from bases in Europe before Iran and the U.S. agreed to a ceasefire.

Rutte gushed about Trump having been “very harsh” with defence contractors, saying, “I had one of them over in my office. He was still trembling.”

That was a reference to Trump having held a series of meetings with Pentagon officials and leading military contractors at the White House recently, discussing ways to increase munitions production after the Iran war raised concerns about the U.S. eating into its stocks of missiles.

“This is your president, but also the leader of the free world, taking the leadership role, as is necessary,” Rutte told reporters in the Oval.

The U.S. Defense Department is conducting a review

The visit, Rutte’s fifth since Trump returned to power last year, comes after U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth last week lashed out at allies during a meeting at NATO headquarters in Brussels. His department is in the midst of a six-month review of U.S. forces in Europe.

Hegseth echoed some of Trump’s critiques, faulting European allies for not letting the U.S. use bases in Europe to attack Iran. NATO allies were not consulted about the war before the U.S. launched it with Israel on Feb. 28, and some have been openly critical of Trump’s strategy.

Trump argues that NATO allies were not there for the U.S. and suggested leaving the alliance, which was founded in 1949 to counter the Cold War threat posed to European security by the Soviet Union. At the heart of their treaty is a mutual defence agreement in which an attack on one is considered an attack on all. The only time it has been invoked was in 2001, to support the United States after the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington.

The Pentagon’s warning that it will reduce its military presence in Europe to focus on threats elsewhere was the latest upheaval for the 32-member alliance since Trump returned to office.

The Republican leader stunned European allies last year when he threatened to annex Greenland, a semiautonomous island that is part of ally Denmark.

Earlier Wednesday, the leaders of five big European NATO allies -- Germany, France, the U.K., Italy and Poland -- met in Berlin to prepare for next month’s summit in Ankara, and Rutte joined them remotely.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said in remarks to reporters that the Ankara summit also should send the message that “we will do our part when the conditions are in place” to support an Iran peace deal.

French President Emmanuel Macron said “we are in a moment of reconvergence between the Europeans and the Americans” and indicated that he hopes that will continue at the summit.

Flattering Trump is a key objective

During the meeting, Rutte gave a presentation using three boards on easels, touting U.S.-NATO ties. Joining Trump were Hegseth, U.S. Vice President JD Vance and other top administration officials.

After he was done, however, Trump spent long stretches not talking about NATO but instead boasting about his effort to beautify Washington. He even suggested that, two years ago, before he deployed the National Guard, the NATO chief might have “had a good chance of being mugged, although you’re a very big guy.”

“They would have mugged him up. They would have beaten the hell out of him,” Trump said to laughs. He further suggested that, previously, “nobody wanted to go out” in the nation’s capital and “even if you got into the restaurant, they’d rob when you were in.”

Nevertheless, a chief part of Rutte’s mission these days is keeping the U.S. in NATO, and he’s proven himself adept in the past at subduing Trump’s frustrations.

Rutte frequently credits Trump with getting NATO members to increase their defence spending. The president last year pressured leaders to agree to invest 5 per cent of their GDP annually in defence by 2035.

“He is completely committed” to the NATO alliance, Rutte said after leaving the White House, though he added, “I expect allies to spend more to equalize with the United States.”

The lengths to which Rutte is willing to go in praising Trump have at times raised eyebrows, such as when he referred to the president as “daddy” during the alliance’s summit last year.

He then sent him a fawning text message that employed one of Trump’s favorite flourishes, capitalizing random words. “Europe is going to pay in a BIG way, as they should, and it will be your win,” Rutte said.

Trump shared the private message on social media for the world to see.

He did it again in January, blasting out another Rutte message that closed with: “Can’t wait to see you. Yours, Mark.”

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Michelle L. Price, The Associated Press

Associated Press writer Lorne Cook in Brussels contributed to this report.