Rutte meets Trump in Washington amid NATO spending tensions

Mark Rutte met Donald Trump at the White House on Wednesday as NATO tried to hold together a 32-member alliance under pressure from the president on defense spending, U.S. troop levels in Europe and the war involving Iran. The face-to-face meeting came during Rutte’s three-day Washington visit, from 23 to 25 June, two weeks before NATO leaders are due to gather in Ankara, Turkey.

During the visit, he was due to discuss allied funding, support for Ukraine, U.S. troop commitments in Europe and summit cohesion in July. He was also due to meet senior U.S. administration officials and members of Congress, join an E5 meeting virtually from Washington and take part in an Atlantic Council discussion on Thursday.

Trump has renewed threats to leave the alliance and has said NATO allies are not spending enough on defense. He wants them to move faster toward a target of 5% of gross domestic product annually by 2035, even though NATO countries agreed last year to invest 5% of GDP on defense by 2035. Rutte has credited Trump with pushing allies toward higher spending.

Pete Hegseth, the U.S. defense secretary, announced a six-month review of U.S. troop deployments in Europe and described NATO as a “paper tiger” in remarks at NATO headquarters in Brussels. The U.S. will also reduce fighter jets and warships used in NATO’s response in the early stages of a conflict.

Trump complained that some European allies did not support U.S. actions tied to the conflict, including access to bases and concerns over the Strait of Hormuz. European allies were not consulted before the U.S. launched the war with Israel on 28 February 2026, and several governments have criticized Trump’s strategy. Article 5 has been invoked only once, after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, even as Trump again questions whether the U.S. should remain in the alliance founded in 1949.

Trump’s earlier threat last year to annex Greenland, the semiautonomous part of NATO ally Denmark, remains part of the relationship.