Rutte’s NATO report card: More devil’s advocate than Trump whisperer

The Hague, THE NETHERLANDS ­– Mark Rutte has styled himself as NATO’s Trump whisperer, but a fawning display at the alliance's summit has critics fearing he’s becoming Trump's enabler.

NATO's secretary-general worked overtime to butter up Donald Trump even before the US president arrived in Rutte's Dutch hometown of The Hague, where the welcome included the political equivalent of roses and a serenade.

But when Trump, never shy about boasting of his fan mail, publicly displayed the personal text message received from Rutte before touching down in town, it divided opinion.

Was Rutte's text, rife in capital letters and Trump flattery, still a master stroke of a well-crafted communication, or a cringeworthy display of subservience?

To one camp, the Dutchman had exactly understood the assignment: flatter Trump to keep him from blowing up NATO. Rutte doubled down during their joint appearance a day later.

"Daddy sometimes has to use tough language,” Rutte said, when Trump compared Iran and Israel to children fighting in a school playground.

"He likes me, I think he likes me," Trump replied.

Rutte's campaign of flattery to win over Trump in recent months in the hope of maintaining US support for the ailing Western military alliance, however, also draws a second, perhaps now growing, camp of exasperated critics.

That the entire summit was designed around Trump’s preferences, with Ukraine shunted to the margins, was, to critics, an unmistakable signal. Europe, they feared, was preparing to bend the knee a bit too much. Goodbye, strategic autonomy.

What remains uncertain is whether this courtship will succeed and whether Trump will keep promises of the US staying engaged in Europe's security and committed to NATO's Article 5.

A slippery slope

Rutte has straddled a precarious line between keeping Trump happy and Europeans calm. But since Trump's return in January, European NATO diplomats have had repeated cause to raise eyebrows over Rutte's PR strategy.

The most prominent was when the new American administration arrived for their first trip to Europe in February.

The US and European NATO members retained the "same priorities" on spending, production and ending the war in Ukraine, Rutte told Euractiv just minutes before US defence secretary Pete Hegseth's stunning remarks to the contrary plunged European security brass into diplomatic chaos.

Rutte’s subsequent visits to Washington were suspiciously watched by Europeans. A key moment for some of his critics was when Trump, sitting next to Rutte in the Oval Office in March, doubled down on his dream of annexing Greenland.

Eastern European NATO members were also concerned that a laissez-faire attitude towards a country’s territorial integrity, if left unchallenged by Rutte, would further erode the already derailed discussion on Ukraine support.

Another instance was Trump’s meltdown at Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office, after which Rutte quickly joined the UK in rushing to communicate with Kyiv to make up with his administration, already a day later.

European NATO diplomats now cite that episode as a textbook case of how not to manage Trump.

In addition, NATO headquarters has quietly watered down commitments on climate change and the Women, Peace, and Security agenda – longstanding NATO priorities – irking NATO officials who helped negotiate them.

“He is not paid to implement MAGA policy,” one European NATO diplomat quipped.

Rutte's bet is that a softer NATO, shaped around Trump’s ego, is better than no NATO at all.

His critics fear that he might instead risk getting the worst of both worlds: a hollowed-out alliance and a still-ambivalent America.

(bts/om)