Rutte's fawn offensive saves NATO, for now
ANALYSIS: Europe must not squander Donald Trump's reprieve
The Hague: Donald Trump threw his support behind NATO at a make-or-break summit in the Dutch capital, saying he no longer believes the defensive alliance is a rip-off now that European leaders have pledged major increases to their defence spending.
And the US President stated that the collective defence alliance cannot work without the United States, but he left the door open to it being capable without America ‘in the future.’
In a brief declaration of just 424 words, NATO members agreed to spend 3.5 per cent of GDP on core defences and a further 1.5 per cent on related infrastructure by 2035, with an audit within four years to check they are keeping their promises and yearly reviews.
The US President hailed it as a ‘monumental victory’ and big win for ‘Western civilisation.’
‘Tremendous things have been accomplished,’ he told hundreds of reporters packed into the press theatre at the World Forum.
He said he had attended the summit out of obligation but left a changed man.
‘On Article 5, when I came here, I came here because it was something I’m supposed to be doing,’ he said.
‘And I left here differently, I left here saying that these people really love their countries.
‘I watched the Heads of these countries get up and the love and the passion they showed for their country was unbelievable.
‘Almost every one of them said “Thank God for the United States.”
‘It’s not a rip-off, and we’re here to help them protect their country.’
He said NATO couldn’t work without the US but suggested Europe might one day be able to stand on its own two feet.
‘It will in the future because now they are paying much more money.’
NATO allies not only reaffirmed their ‘ironclad’ commitment to the collective defence clause Article 5, but also agreed that Russia poses a threat to Euro-Atlantic security and not just European security. Both of these statements were the goals of the summit and constituted significant victories for the Europeans.
Mr Trump agreed that it was ‘possible’ that Russia had territorial ambitions beyond Ukraine.
He met Ukraine’s President Volodmyr Zelensky and said their meeting was ‘very nice.’
Mr Zelensky said in a statement that the meeting was very good.
‘We discussed the protection of our people with the President — first and foremost, the purchase of American air defence systems to shield our cities, our people, churches, and infrastructure,’ the President said.
‘Ukraine is ready to buy this equipment and support American weapons manufacturers. Europe can help.
‘We also discussed the potential for co-production of drones.
‘We can strengthen each other.’
And in a warm exchange with a Ukrainian journalist, whose husband was fighting on the frontline, Mr Trump promised to look at making more Patriot missiles available to Ukraine.
US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth upbraided defence correspondents at a media briefing at the Pentagon on Thursday, saying they had failed to realise the magnitude of Trump’s European achievement.
‘What President Trump accomplished in NATO was game-changing and historic.
‘A shift in burden sharing to the European responsibility in NATO that most would have said was impossible.
‘So I hope with all the ink spilled, all of your outlets find the time to properly recognise this historic change in continental security, that other Presidents tried to do, that other presidents talked about — President Trump accomplished it.
‘It’s a huge deal.
‘The press corps miss historic moments, you miss historic moments like 5 per cent at NATO.
‘When you hear the prime ministers and presidents of other countries, to a man and a woman looking at President Trump and saying ‘this never could have happened, never would have happened, seemed impossible five years ago, two years ago, eight years ago.
‘But here we are because of your leadership.’
But Trump’s visit to the Netherlands is mostly a major success for NATO’s boss Mark Rutte.
The former Dutch prime minister is being ridiculed for his obsequious fawning over his ‘good friend’ Mr Trump in order to secure continued US backing for the defensive alliance.
On his way to Europe, Trump posted a screencap of text messages Rutte sent him. They revealed not so much a Trump-whisperer at work, but a plain old-fashioned brown-noser adopting Trump-syntax, complete with randomly capitalised words, to speak Trumpian to Trump.
‘Donald, you have driven us to a really, really important moment for America and Europe, and the world,’ Rutte wrote.
‘You will achieve something NO American president in decades could get done.
‘It was not easy but we’ve got them all signed onto 5 per cent!
‘Europe is going to pay in a BIG way, as they should, and it will be your win.'
Rutte was unashamed by his excessive flattery which culminated in the NATO boss jokingly referring to the US President to his face as ‘Daddy.’
Trump had been likening Iran and Israel to children, prompting Mr Rutte’s jest. But Rutte defended his admiration of Mr Trump as ‘a question of taste’ and said the President was a ‘good friend’ who ‘deserved praise’.
‘Would you ever think that this would be the result of this summit if he would not have been re-elected president?’ Mr Rutte said.
‘Do you really think that the seven or eight countries who said yes, somewhere in the 2030s we might meet the 2 per cent?
‘We've now all decided the last four or five months to get to 2 per cent.
‘So doesn't he deserve some praise?’
Trump dominated the show at NATO 2025, but its real star was Mark Rutte who managed to persuade western and southern Europe to sign up to 3.5 per cent targets.
Even the UK, which fashions itself as a security leader in Europe, had only committed to 3 per cent from 2028 at the earliest.
Rutte has bought Europe a crucial lifeline with his deft handling of the President, who was charmed by the adulation and ‘royal treatment’ he was given in the Dutchman’s home city of The Hague.
Trump was originally slated to sleep overnight at a hotel by the seaside. The beach and designated hotel had been closed to the public for weeks as part of security preparations.
At the last minute, it was announced he would be the first US President to sleep at the Royal Palace where he also dined with NATO leaders upon arriving in the Netherlands on Wednesday.
It was the perfect touch.
He told reporters he ‘slept beautiful.’ His good mood made for a successful summit that many Europeans feared could end in tragedy and disaster.
For now, the continent is not abandoned. It has a President backing a rearming Europe and an ‘ironclad’ commitment to Article 5 — the collective defence treaty.
These were important messages and signals to China’s Xi Jinping and Russia’s Vladimir Putin. They show Trump is a President who understands the might of using American military power, as demonstrated by his weekend strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, and is someone who can be moved by flattery.
While the reinstallation of strategic ambiguity into Trump’s playbook, versus the TACO (Trump Always Chickens Out) narrative that was beginning to take hold, is reassuring, the latter should keep Europe in crisis mode.
It must use this window of opportunity to truly prepare for life beyond a pliable Trump and a permanently changed America — one that is possibly in the hands of a more hardened and ideological MAGA.
The worst-case scenario, as many in the Baltics fear, is that too many share the views of Spain’s Pedro Sanchez.
The Socialist leader thinks he can meet his defence capability needs by spending 2 per cent of his budget on the military and secured an exemption to the 5 per cent raise. Spain, however, will be required to meet capability targets by 2029.
Then there is the slow pace of rearming. NATO countries gave themselves ten years to reach 5 per cent.
When I sent Estonian MP Raimond Kaljulaid, former chair of Estonia’s Defence Committee and current chair of the Estonian NATO Parliamentary delegation, the image of my splash of the NATO summit, he wrote the following.
‘IMHO this cover of The Nightly pretty much sums it all up,’ he said.
‘The NATO summit in the Hague was a "quickie" that ended with Rutte calling Trump "daddy".
’The 5 per cent that was announced is not really 5 per cent it's actually 3.5 per cent.‘But that's not surprising because we already had the EU announced €800 billion that was actually just €150 billion. ‘
‘The NATO announcement is a BIG WIN for Daddy but not enough for Europe.’
’Multiple intelligence services in Europe have published reports that conclude Russia will have the capability to go after NATO in three to five years.‘We don't have a decade.’
Trump, now a seemingly NATO convert (for however long that lasts), will be out of the White House by the time Russia could move.
What follows in the White House may be a Democrat, but it may also be a Republican, and one far less moved by a young Ukrainian woman journalist telling him their story and susceptible to a Dutchman willing to call him ‘Daddy’ in public.
While many Europeans might sneer at Rutte’s obsequiousness, the NATO boss’s methods are justified. That he is so eager to look like he enjoys the grovelling is bemusing, but European leaders would be better off focusing on the question of how long they truly think the Americans remain dedicated to the security of the continent and how soon they can manage on their own.
It was notable that just two American Democratic Senators formed the entire US delegation to this year’s summit. Neither Chris Coons nor Jeanne Shaheen represent the next generation of American political leaders.
US buy-in into Europe’s long-term well-being is no guarantee.
Even as Trump praised NATO and European leaders for their love of country, a patriotism that moved him to thinking the Alliance was no longer a ‘rip off,’ he noted that ‘in the future’ Europe would be capable of protecting itself without America.
Trump delivered a good show in The Hague; it’s now up to Europe to grasp that the curtain could fall at any time.