Trump on the warpath is Rutte’s toughest test yet

 

Trump on the warpath is Rutte’s toughest test yet

 

With recriminations growing between the U.S. and Europe, NATO’s leader will try again to avoid an all-out rupture.

 

By Eli Stokols and Victor Jack

04/07/2026 10:00 PM EDT

https://www.politico.com/news/2026/04/07/trump-rutte-toughest-test-yet-00862128

 

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte is making another fraught trip to the White House Wednesday, hoping to again prevent President Donald Trump from breaking apart the transatlantic alliance.

 

But with Trump desperate to find a clear victory in what’s become a messy conflict with Iran, the president has turned increasingly hostile toward European allies — and all of Rutte’s public flattery may not be enough to forestall a deeper and perhaps irreparable rupture.

 

Although Trump has swung from saying he’s “very disappointed” in the alliance’s refusal to engage in Iran to at times downplaying his exasperation, he has been “very consistent” about his frustration behind closed doors, according to a senior administration official who was granted anonymity to describe the president’s unvarnished feelings about the alliance.

 

The president, who told reporters last week he is “reconsidering” the U.S. role in the alliance, cannot formally withdraw from NATO without a two-thirds vote by the Senate or an act of Congress. But, the official added, “he has other ways to reduce our commitment.” Although the official wouldn’t specify further, Trump could conceivably cut U.S. funding for NATO operations, draw down its force posture in Europe or even halt the sharing of intelligence with Ukraine amid its war with Russia.

 

Trump suggested during a news conference on Monday that his growing antipathy toward NATO “began” with Europe’s refusal to give in to his pressure earlier this year when he threatened to seize Greenland from Denmark. “We want Greenland. They don’t want to give it to us. And I said, ‘bye, bye.’”

 

But in Brussels and across Europe, many officials are expressing a similar level of frustration with the U.S. That’s further complicating Rutte’s objective — to try to appease Trump for the long-term benefit of the alliance in a moment when anti-U.S. sentiment is rising across Europe. In addition, many NATO member countries are frustrated that their attempts to mollify Trump haven’t earned them more goodwill.

 

POLITICO spoke to 10 former and current NATO officials, some of whom were granted anonymity to discuss the sensitive situation, about their hardening opposition to Trump, especially on Iran. It’s a conflict, they emphasized, that lay far from the alliance’s key responsibilities but has become the centerpiece of the latest rift.

 

“Europeans’ appetites to support the U.S are at below zero levels,” said one senior EU official.

 

After engineering a successful summit last summer in The Hague that saw allies commit to increase defense spending at Trump’s behest, and in getting Trump to relent on his Greenland threats earlier this year, Rutte is facing arguably his most difficult challenge yet when it comes to keeping the president on his side.

 

“I would hope that Rutte remembers he represents all members of NATO, not just one” country, said Nathalie Loiseau, a centrist French lawmaker on the European Parliament’s defense committee, in a text message. “I would like him to tell Trump what he can expect from NATO allies (support if [the] U.S. is attacked) and what he shouldn’t (participation in a war without a reason and without a strategy). That would make Rutte’s reputation improve and maybe help Trump understand.”

 

But the president’s resentment about having his threats toward European sovereignty rebuffed has only intensified in recent weeks as NATO allies have refused to take part in his campaign against Iran.

 

“President Trump expects the United States to be treated fairly,” said Anna Kelly, a White House spokesperson, in a statement to POLITICO. “Unfortunately, many of his predecessors — Democrat and Republican — allowed our country to be ripped off by unfair trading practices and disproportional international organizations that were not beneficial for our country. He has been disappointed by NATO and other allies’ unwillingness to be helpful throughout Operation Epic Fury, even though his efforts to destroy the threat posed by Iran is to their benefit. As he said, the United States will remember.”

 

European nations have opted against sending forces to the Gulf and some have denied the U.S. access to joint military bases within their borders or their airspace for use during the war. Some leaders have also been more critical of Trump publicly, few more so than French President Emmanuel Macron, who asserted that Europe’s reluctance to send forces to Iran was at least in part the result of his hostility toward the alliance.

 

“If you create doubt every day about your commitment, you hollow it out,” Macron said.

 

Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, a German centrist lawmaker who heads the European Parliament’s defense committee, said the Rutte-Trump talks are “welcomed” even though she’s not sure much will come of it. “That is hard to say because the U.S. President’s expectations of the European NATO members — whom he has never involved and in whom he takes an interest only when it seems to be in his own interests — are astonishing,” she said.

 

“You cannot subject European partners to months of tariff harassment and badmouth the support provided by NATO countries in Afghanistan alongside the U.S., and then expect the Europeans to jump to action whenever Trump wants them to. Moreover, the U.S. president is completely unreliable; what he says today may no longer hold true tomorrow,” she added.

 

The “long-planned” meeting, said a NATO official speaking on behalf of the organization, will “seek to build on the success of the [2025] NATO Summit … unlock further cooperation among defence industry on both sides of the Atlantic, and discuss current security dynamics including in the context of Iran.”

 

A European official from a NATO country speculated that Trump views NATO as a scapegoat for the state of the war in Iran. “It’s obviously not a good time for transatlantic ties,” the official said. “Trump is clearly not happy with how the Iran campaign is going and wants to blame allies.”

 

Trump didn’t consult with NATO ahead of the war, but that hasn’t inoculated Europe from the president’s pique — or from the economic consequences of a conflict that has seen oil prices spike following Iran’s essential closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

 

“We’re obviously not to blame but I don’t think all statements by Europeans have been helpful either,” the European official said. “We should all tread carefully on both sides of the Atlantic to prevent long term harm — for both sides.”

 

Rutte’s visit to the White House will come hours after Trump’s self-imposed deadline for Iran to either accept the terms of a ceasefire agreement or face the death of “a whole civilization.” Trump said Tuesday evening that he had agreed to a temporary ceasefire.

 

And given the lack of consensus within NATO itself about any potential involvement in the Iran conflict, the secretary general will be relying almost entirely on his personal relationship with the president, who he has showered in over-the-top public praise at seemingly every opportunity.

 

“It is obvious that he can offer nothing from NATO in Iran, since it falls out of its area of responsibility,” said one senior NATO diplomat. “I guess he will stress again how European allies and Canada assume more of the burden for the collective security in Europe every passing day.”

 

Allies instead expect Rutte to talk up the merits of NATO for U.S. interests and return with a better understanding of what exactly he wants from European allies, according to two NATO diplomats. But the secretary general is not expected to use the meeting to make any major announcements on a NATO initiative relating to the war in Iran, according to two people familiar with the matter.

 

One of the NATO diplomats said it’s “doubtful” that those reminders from Rutte will be enough for Trump in a moment that carries far more political peril for the president than any before.

 

“It’s a difficult position, because he’s the only one who is going to be able to sit down with Trump and try to get Trump to take a positive view towards working with NATO allies,” said Kurt Volker, a former U.S. ambassador to NATO under President George W. Bush.

 

“That’s a hard lift, not easy to do, but he has a good relationship with Trump. He understands … the way Trump thinks and reacts, he’s got to be creative and proactive.”