I have always wondered if the NATO “Trump whisperer” Mark Rutte was actually just playing him as everyone assumed or if he was a true believer. He certainly seemed sincere in all of his public appearances with Trump and was extremely enthusiastic in his support. The affect and the body language certainly suggested “MAGA cultists” in a way that you rarely see among Europeans (other than the Orban and Nigel Farage types.)
It looks like that might be the case after all:
Mark Rutte, the secretary general of NATO, is often called a “Trump whisperer,” able to mix public flattery with private advice to an unpredictable and moody American president whose support is crucial to the alliance and to Ukraine’s war against Russia.
To that end, Mr. Rutte, who took the job in October 2024, has been willing to accept a degree of humiliation for his efforts to keep Mr. Trump sweet and onside, especially on intelligence support for Ukraine. He even called Mr. Trump the alliance’s “Daddy” before last year’s crucial NATO summit meeting.
But Mr. Rutte’s open support for Mr. Trump’s decision to go to war alongside Israel against Iran has brought new, sharper criticism.
The issue is not that he is flattering Mr. Trump. It is that Mr. Rutte is supporting a war of choice that most of the other 31 NATO allies regard as unnecessary and illegal under international law, as President Frank-Walter Steinmeier of Germany called it on Tuesday.
By supporting the war, which does not involve NATO or collective defense, the critics say, Mr. Rutte has gone beyond his remit as secretary general of the whole alliance to become a cheerleader for an unpopular president and an unpopular war.
It really surprised me to hear him say that and apparently it surprised the Europeans as well as most other experts on NATO:
Mr. Rutte’s main task is to keep the 32-nation alliance together and Mr. Trump engaged, supportive and involved. As someone who does not need to face voters, Mr. Rutte appears prepared to swallow some pride in order to please the White House and maintain its willingness to provide crucial intelligence, and to sell vital arms, to Ukraine.
But Ivo Daalder, a former American ambassador to NATO, said that on Iran, “it makes no sense for the NATO secretary-general to support an argument and a war that 31 other countries think is stupid, illegal, unnecessary and deeply destructive of the main goal, to weaken Russia.”
“The number one goal for him,” Mr. Daalder added, “is to keep NATO secure, and right now the biggest threat to NATO is Trump.”
Fabian Zuleeg, chief executive of the European Policy Center, a Brussels research organization, said working to keep the United States involved in NATO was crucial. “But as a European leader with responsibility to other European NATO members, Rutte is over the top, leaning too much in one direction,” he said.
He was definitely over the top last week:
He’s said it before:
NATO’s Rutte on him calling Trump “daddy”: Here is my insufficient command of the English language – I said ‘yeah, daddy sometimes has to be tough.’ And… of course later realizing that the word ‘daddy’ has a lot of connotations. Then, what he did, and this is to his credit because he is a fun guy and he has a lot of humor, the American side then put this on T-shirts, there was a video when he came back from the Hague summit where he said ‘daddy is home.’ So there it was born. And it was never intentioned, but okay, I am now carrying it, living with it, it’s a fact of life.
There’s boot-licking and then there’s boot licking with gusto. I don’t think there’s any doubt that this guy likes him, he really likes him.