Nato Chief’s Playbook With Trump: Show Him The Money

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has crystallized his playbook when it comes to Donald Trump’s relationship with the alliance: Make it about the money.

His sales pitch to the president last year centered around Europeans increasing their military spending. This year he's promising allies will invest in American defense firms.

Rutte’s two-day trip to Washington and meeting with Trump — a largely drama-free affair filled with slides about NATO’s boosted expenditures — foreshadowed the focus of the upcoming leaders’ summit in Ankara, Turkey, which is likely to try and paper over U.S. antagonisms towards the alliance and forestall a removal of troops on the continent. But the NATO leader’s appeasing tone also underscored just how concerned allies remain about losing American support.

“Don't be afraid of some discussions, and sometimes some tensions” within the alliance, Rutte said at the Atlantic Council think tank. “I'm never afraid of those, because from these tensions and discussions, good things evolve … sometimes we fight each other a bit, that's normal. We are democracies.”

But Trump has a particularly contentious relationship with NATO. He has repeatedly threatened to pull the U.S. out of the alliance — most recently in April — and demanded members stop relying on America for defense assistance. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth this month announced a review of U.S. troops stationed on the continent. The Pentagon has already said it will pull some of its equipment out of the region and has yanked troops out of Romania and Germany. 

Rutte doubled down on a familiar strategy this week to keep the relationship with the U.S. calm. He laid the compliments on thick and stuck to the unsexy meat-and-potatoes challenge of building up the defense industry — and spending on American weapons.

He called for a "transatlantic industrial revolution” to kick off the alliance meeting next month, teasing what will likely involve tens of billions of dollars more in defense spending pledges. Allies are expected to agree to new arms contracts and more weapons production at the summit, according to five NATO diplomats.

“Talking business and deals is the play that all leaders make with Trump,” said a European official, who like others, was granted anonymity to discuss a sensitive topic. “Some might be annoyed by it, but it’s generally effective.”

NATO, the White House and the Pentagon did not respond to requests for comment.

The flattering tone is a Rutte special. He didn’t call Trump “daddy,” like last year at the NATO summit. But he repeatedly referred to the president as the “leader of the free world” and to the alliance’s defense spending increase as the “Trump trillion.”

He also said Trump had a right to be disappointed in NATO nations that didn’t assist the U.S. with the Iran war. But Rutte did make sure to tell the president that 5,000 U.S. military flights took off from European air bases during the first weeks of the war.

Trump mostly ignored the factoid, and spent more of the televised press conference talking about problems with algae in the reflecting pool on the National Mall than the intricacies of the transatlantic alliance.

It’s not clear how long these good vibes will last. European officials aren’t crazy about getting dinged by the NATO leader over Iran. But some said they understand Rutte is trying to keep the U.S. engaged.

“Rutte is in a difficult spot and we can accommodate some flattery if that is what it takes to get Trump to Ankara,” said another European diplomat.

Part of the fawning comes from the recognition that the alliance can’t live without U.S. involvement, even as it attempts to establish a “European pillar” that replaces some of the American military’s capabilities on the continent. That means keeping Trump onside.

“It is only natural and common sense for Rutte to do what he is doing,” said Giedrimas Jeglinskas, a former Lithuanian member of parliament and a one-time NATO official. “Rutte’s legacy as the [secretary general] rests on his ability to keep the U.S. as a central ally. NATO without the U.S. is not [what] the NATO countries have signed up for.”

That is likely why Rutte this week was quick to credit Trump for the alliance’s spending surge. The alliance chief pointed out that from 2016 to 2026, the 31 non-U.S. NATO allies spent $1.2 trillion more on their defense, rising by 20 percent last year alone.

Rutte’s approach isn’t universally loved in Europe. Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto rebuked him this week for saying Italy had allowed hundreds of U.S. aircraft to take off from the country to support the Iran war. The Italian government insists it has only permitted technical and logistical flights.

Even so, many current and former European officials are convinced that Rutte’s effort is important.

“He has Trump’s ear,” said Peter Rough, director of the Center on Europe and Eurasia at the Hudson Institute and a former Bush administration official. “That is what matters.”