Trump shares fawning texts from NATO chief
US President Donald Trump has posted screenshots of private text messages from NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, in which the former Dutch prime minister aped Trump's writing style and showered the American leader with praise for “decisive action in Iran.”
Trump published the screenshots, widely seen as deeply embarrassing for the NATO chief, on his Truth Social platform ahead of the military bloc's two-day NATO summit in The Hague, which started on Tuesday.
“Congratulations and thank you for your decisive action in Iran, that was truly extraordinary, and something no one else dared to do. It makes us all safer,” Rutte wrote.
Rutte is backing Trump's controversial demands that NATO members more-than-double their military spending to 5% of GDP. He has previously called for cuts to social programs in the EU in order to spend more on a militarized economy and suggested wthat without them Western Europeans should learn Russian.
In his messages he boasted to Trump that “Europe is going to pay BIG,” and anticipated “another big success” at The Hague summit, saying that all NATO members had agreed to spend 5% of their GDP on defense.
“You will achieve something NO American president in decades could get done,” he proclaimed.
A NATO spokesperson has reportedly confirmed to the BBC that the text is authentic.
Trump has long insisted that NATO members in Europe should significantly increase their military budgets, which many have pledged to do in recent years, citing the Russian-Ukraine conflict.
Spain has reportedly decided to opt out of the 5% spending target, after Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez rejected the idea as “not only unreasonable but also counterproductive.” Madrid is currently below the existing 2% spending threshold, with only about 1.3% of its GDP allocated for the military.
Rutte, however, told journalists on Monday that NATO rules don’t allow such exemptions.
