{"id":5013,"date":"2026-07-05T05:37:45","date_gmt":"2026-07-05T05:37:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/raleighmovingnews.com\/?p=5013"},"modified":"2026-07-05T05:37:45","modified_gmt":"2026-07-05T05:37:45","slug":"nato-chief-may-have-to-match-his-made-for-trump-sales-pitch-to-keep-a-summit-on-the-rails","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/raleighmovingnews.com\/?p=5013","title":{"rendered":"NATO chief may have to match his made-for-Trump sales pitch to keep a summit on the rails"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) \u2014 Since he started work as NATO secretary-general almost two years ago, Mark Rutte has spent much of his time trying to keep the United States anchored to the world\u2019s biggest military alliance, employing outright flattery to dissuade U.S. President Donald Trump from acting on threats to abandon it.<\/p>\n

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But the goalposts keep shifting, raising the stakes ahead of this week\u2019s summit in Turkey.<\/p>\n

Initially, it was about money. Trump has long railed against NATO allies for spending too small a fraction of their national budgets on defense. But those problems were addressed at their summit last year, when U.S. allies committed to invest as much as America, in gross domestic product terms. <\/p>\n

NATO\u2019s real problem now is turning that money into military capabilities, particularly as European countries worry about a possible attack from Russia.<\/p>\n

Still, Rutte tried to put to bed any lingering concerns at a White House meeting last month, with a new pitch using a chart labeled the \u201cThe Trump Trillion\u201d in gold letters \u2014 showing $1.2 trillion in spending by European allies and Canada since 2017.<\/p>\n

But Trump appeared unmoved, saying he was still disappointed at some NATO allies\u2019 refusal to join the Iran war, which he had launched alongside Israel without consulting them.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t need their money \u2014 we don\u2019t need anything,\u201d Trump said. \u201cI just want loyalty.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump suggested he might have skipped the upcoming summit entirely were it not being hosted by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. It\u2019s a sign that even Erdogan and Rutte \u2014 foreign leaders Trump seems to hold in rare esteem \u2014 will have their work cut out for them in keeping the summit on track.<\/p>\n

Rutte set a new marker for flattery at the White House<\/h3>\n

Historically, the prime tasks of NATO\u2019s top civilian official \u2014 always a European, never an American \u2014 have been to encourage consensus in an organization that makes its decisions unanimously, and to speak on behalf of all 32 member countries.<\/p>\n

But during both of Trump\u2019s terms, Rutte and his predecessor at the helm of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg, have dedicated a huge amount of energy just to keep the United States inside their alliance.<\/p>\n

Trump has threatened to leave NATO, dallied with pulling U.S. troops out of Europe and vowed to take over the island of Greenland \u2014 a semiautonomous part of ally Denmark. He has cast doubt over whether he would defend another member not spending enough on their military, eroding trust.<\/p>\n

Rutte\u2019s approach has been heavy on flattery. Last month\u2019s carefully choreographed pitch in the Oval Office \u2014 with props redolent of an American flag \u2014 laid down a new marker, even for a man heavily criticized for likening Trump to a \u201cdaddy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The charts showed tens of thousands of U.S. jobs were being created and a backlog of $300 billion in European orders for military equipment \u2014 all thanks to the \u201cleader of the free world,\u201d Rutte said.<\/p>\n

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He pushed back, gently, on Trump\u2019s complaints that NATO did not support the U.S. against Iran, noting that up to 5,000 U.S. planes took off from bases in Europe before an April ceasefire.<\/p>\n

Trump has threatened to pull forces from Europe at a moment of peril<\/h3>\n

NATO cannot function without its biggest and most powerful ally. Europe is being pushed to fend for itself even as Russia, the historical reason for the alliance, poses a greater threat.<\/p>\n

Last month, the Pentagon surprised its NATO allies by announcing that it was scaling back the number of troops, warships, aircraft and drones it would provide if one of them came under attack. Trump has also sent conflicting messages about whether U.S. troop numbers would be lowered or increased.<\/p>\n

The cutbacks and mixed messaging has undermined unity at the alliance, just as Russia has been probing Europe\u2019s defenses with drone flights near military bases across multiple countries, according to a study released on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Flattery worked last year, but now there are new challenges<\/h3>\n

Each summit is meant to showcase the commitment to collective security \u2014 the all-for-one, one-for-all pledge enshrined in Article 5 of NATO\u2019s treaty. It\u2019s only been invoked once, when allies came to America\u2019s aid after the Sept. 11 attacks.<\/p>\n

The last NATO summit was held in The Hague, the hometown of Rutte, a former Dutch prime minister. The Dutch royal family hosted dinner, and Trump stayed overnight at the king\u2019s palace.<\/p>\n

Rutte got the allies behind a major defense spending pledge, and Trump left a happy man, calling his NATO partners a \u201cnice group of people.\u201d<\/p>\n

This year, the summit will be hosted by Erdogan, another key NATO member with an independent streak. His close ties to Trump may keep the American president at the table, but it\u2019s unlikely to mend the rifts.<\/p>\n

Rutte has tried to convince Trump that his European partners are spending so much more that America can safely turn its attention to security challenges posed by China while they handle the war in Ukraine.<\/p>\n

But Trump wants more now, and his demand for \u201cloyalty\u201d is hard to capture on any chart.<\/p>\n

Rutte\u2019s predecessor, Stoltenberg, has written in his memoir about chairing a 2018 summit that Trump nearly upended.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf an American president says he no longer wishes to defend the other allies and leaves a NATO summit in protest, then the NATO treaty and its security guarantee aren\u2019t worth very much,\u201d Stoltenberg wrote.<\/p>\n

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