NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte traveled to Washington this week to try and resolve the major breach in NATO that has opened up this year. I previewed his meeting with President Trump in the Oval Office, arguing that while they have a good personal relationship, his task to convince Trump of NATO’s value two weeks before a NATO Summit was a tall one.
So how did Rutte do? In one sense, not bad. Rutte delivered a master class in flattery, giving Trump all the credit for the increase in defense spending by European allies and Canada. He brought charts depicting what he called “the Trump Trillion” — pointing to the $1.2 trillion increase in non-US NATO defense spending since 2017, when Trump first entered office. And during the first two years of Trump’s second term, Rutte showed on another chart, defense spending was expected to increase by $250 billion. Shrewdly, Rutte had a third chart showing the number of American jobs this increase in defense spending had created.
Rutte was less successful convincing Trump that NATO allies had been there for the United States in its war with Iran. Rutte mentioned that 4,000-5,000 US aircraft had taken off from US bases during the six-week war. Trump remained unconvinced. “They weren’t,” Trump interjected when the Secretary General suggested European allies were there to support the US in the war. “We were let down.” Those were “isolated cases,” Rutte insisted. But Trump was not persuaded. “I just want their loyalty,” he insisted.
And there lies the problem. Trump doesn’t want allies. He wants supplicants. But America’s allies in Europe and Canada have no interest in being Trump loyalist, let alone paying tribute to the President of the United States. As Belgian Prime Minister said earlier this year, “Being a happy vassal is one thing. Being a miserable slave is something else.” NATO allies are increasingly weary of Trump and concerned America no longer is a reliable ally. That is in good part why they are increasing their defense spending — not only to counter a growing threat from Russia (as Rutte also pointed out) but to be less dependent and, perhaps, one day independent from the United States.
So, Rutte is right to call the new spending the Trump Trillion — but mainly because Europe and Canada no longer see the United States as an ally and now need to build up a military that no longer relies on America to come to its aid.
