US President Trump and NATO chief Rutte. Image: keystone
June 25, 2026, 02:44June 25, 2026, 02:44
US President Donald Trump praised NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte as a “great leader” and at the same time reiterated his criticism of several European countries. “He is a friend of mine, (…) a great Secretary General, everyone respects him,” said Trump at a meeting with Rutte in the Oval Office in Washington. Rutte did a really good job: “I think if anyone else were in this position, we wouldn’t be meeting today, to be honest, because we were let down.”
The NATO Secretary General is known for his good relationship with Trump – but has also been confronted with criticism that he is flattering the US President too much. For Rutte, his visit to Washington was about smoothing things over as much as possible – almost two weeks before the NATO summit in the Turkish capital Ankara. Trump and other representatives of his administration have recently repeatedly criticized what they see as the lack of support from allies for the US war against Iran.
Asked whether he still thought that European allies had treated him badly, Trump reiterated his displeasure. «I was disappointed with Italy. I was disappointed with the UK. (…) We were disappointed by Germany and France.” Trump continued that they were disappointed with most of them – and then singled out one country in particular: In connection with Spain, he spoke of a “horror show”.
At the same time, he emphasized that he had great respect for Rutte. We will discuss what happened and see what will happen. US government officials recently announced a reassessment of US relations with NATO in light of their criticism of allies. (sda/dpa)