NATO’s Rutte praised by President Trump but frowned upon in Europe

NATO held an acrimonious summit in Turkey this week, with US President Donald Trump threatening to cut off trade with the ally and annex territory from another ally. But Alliance bosses were full of praise for the man they called “Dear Donald.”

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte thanked President Trump, calling his efforts to get NATO countries to increase defense spending an “amazing” achievement and a “huge victory” for the military alliance.

Rutte’s approach to using flattery to win over the president has led some to question whether this has brought any tangible benefits to the alliance.

Over two days in Ankara, Trump threatened to sever trade ties with NATO member Spain over defense spending, said he was extremely disappointed in NATO’s response to the US war against Iran, and reignited a feud with alliance member Denmark over Greenland.

However, Trump had nothing but praise for Rutte, calling him a “great leader” and the alliance’s “greatest asset.”

Rutte, who sat next to him during a bilateral meeting on Wednesday, praised “Dear Donald” for getting Canada and European countries to spend an additional $1.2 trillion on defense during his two terms in office, which he called the “Trump trillion.”

Rutte used the phrase during a visit to the Oval Office late last month, where he presented Trump with a graph detailing increased spending by NATO countries.

The NATO chief also weighed in Wednesday as Trump harshly criticized the former U.S. president for failing to persuade other NATO members to increase defense spending, saying, “But you did what Eisenhower set out to do…and no other president succeeded. You were the first president. You won.”

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

The ups and downs were a continuation of the approach Rutte, a veteran 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, director of the international security program at Chatham House, told CNBC that the lesson from the Ankara summit is that no one can manage President Trump long-term, and Europe is better off focusing on strengthening its own security instead.

“Mr. Rutte has managed to outperform Mr. Trump with his combination of flattery and obedience, but he is increasingly frustrated by what other NATO leaders perceive as an act in bad taste,” Messmer said in an email.

Messmer said this is partly due to Rutte’s failure to transform his personal relationship with Trump into one that benefits NATO, as the US president remains clearly dissatisfied with the military alliance.

He added: “There are concerns that Mr. Rutte’s approach to the Trump administration does not help the alliance as a whole and could send the wrong message to Russia that European countries feel weak without the United States and are intent on tying the United States to Europe at all costs.”

In contrast to NATO’s Rutte, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen struck a defiant tone in response to President Trump’s recent push for US control of the autonomous Danish territory of Greenland.

Asked by CNBC’s Steve Sedgwick if Denmark would be prepared to defend Greenland militarily if it were attacked, Frederiksen said: “We are prepared to defend every corner of NATO, including our own territory.”

A day earlier, Finnish President Alexander Stubbe had sought to defuse tensions over President Trump’s comments about Greenland. “More Arctic, more calm. When it comes to Arctic security, we have seven Arctic nations in the alliance,” Stubb told CNBC.

He added: “Finland has trained a million soldiers in an arctic environment. We basically live in an arctic environment. Let’s keep that in mind. Let’s continue the process that the Danes, Americans and Greenlanders have been doing.”

Rutte and Trump’s “bromance” made headlines at last year’s NATO summit in the Netherlands, when the alliance made history by announcing it would raise defense spending to 5% of each member country’s GDP by 2035.

At the time, journalists questioned Rutte’s approach, particularly his reference to the US president as “daddy,” which Rutte later described as “a matter of taste.”

A year later, in Ankara, a reporter asked the NATO Secretary-General about his “self-respect” at a press conference, suggesting that the Secretary-General had not come to the defense of NATO countries threatened by President Trump during a summit.

“I want to acknowledge when praise is due. I think we should praise Donald Trump for the fact that NATO is very strong,” Rutte said. He added that increased European defense spending has made the continent “more relevant” to the United States as a strategic partner.

But not everyone was critical of Rutte’s approach to managing the Trump administration at the summit.

“Mark Rutte is the Secretary-General of NATO, not the Secretary-General of the European Union or the President of the European Commission. His only job is to keep[the alliance]running,” Latvian President Edgars Rinkevičis told CNBC’s Steve Sedgwick on Wednesday.

“His only job is to keep the transatlantic relationship intact. His only job is to do whatever it takes to make this alliance work, and he’s doing a great job,” he added.