The exchange was an example of how Mr. Rutte, who has been called the \u201cTrump whisperer<\/a>,\u201d walks a delicate line. NATO needs him to have a close relationship with Mr. Trump. But that coziness has sometimes angered the very European leaders who expect him to placate and modulate Mr. Trump to preserve the alliance.<\/p>\n Mr. Rutte, 59, is tasked with softening such blows. But he is also regularly accused inside NATO of pandering to Mr. Trump, especially on issues outside his purview. His support for Mr. Trump has alienated some European allies, who like the Danes earlier this year, worry that he is not fully representing their interests.<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t comment on the details of discussions between leaders,\u201d said Allison Hart, a NATO spokeswoman, \u201cbut I can say that at no point did the secretary general discuss or propose anything related to the sovereignty of any ally.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Rutte and Mr. Trump talk several times a week, sometimes bantering about golf or world affairs beyond NATO, according to people familiar with their dynamic. Mr. Rutte once delayed a diplomatic dinner to sit in the car outside a Brussels brasserie talking on the phone to the American president, said Thijs van der Plas, the Dutch ambassador to NATO. (Asked for comment, a U.S. official denied the two men spoke that often.)<\/p>\n Another time, on a visit to the White House, Mr. Trump ushered Mr. Rutte and his staff into the private dining room and gave them MAGA paraphernalia that Mr. Trump compared in quality to a Lamborghini, an aide said.<\/p>\n Olivia Wales, a White House spokeswoman, said that Mr. Trump \u201chas a strong relationship\u201d with Mr. Rutte. \u201cNATO countries must take greater responsibility for their own defense,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd they should have been there for the United States\u201d during the war with Iran.<\/p>\n At last year\u2019s summit, Mr. Rutte suggested that Mr. Trump was the alliance\u2019s \u201cdaddy,\u201d prompting the White House to highlight the remark with a music video<\/a>. (Later, somewhat abashed, Mr. Rutte said<\/a> that \u201cdaddy has all sorts of special connotations, and now I have to live with it for the rest of my life.\u201d)<\/p>\n Mr. Rutte, whose 13-year tenure as prime minister of the Netherlands earned him the nickname \u201cTeflon Mark,\u201d is an unlikely liaison to the famously ostentatious American president. Mr. Rutte refuses to live in the opulent secretary general\u2019s residence in Brussels, according to people close to him, and urges people to call him \u201cMark.\u201d (Some still don\u2019t.) A creature of habit, he returns to The Hague nearly every weekend to visit his favorite haunts and to teach high school students, a volunteer pursuit since 2008.<\/p>\n And despite having been an experienced prime minister and a strong defender of the trans-Atlantic relationship, his track record on military spending, often considered key for NATO\u2019s top job, was seen as poor.<\/p>\n But Mr. Rutte proved his worth to NATO at a contentious summit in 2018, when Mr. Trump was threatening to leave the alliance. In a closed-door meeting of world leaders, Mr. Rutte, prime minister then, defused tensions by crediting Mr. Trump with inspiring European leaders to boost defense spending.<\/p>\n He \u201cbasically saved the summit,\u201d said Timo Koster, a former NATO official who was in the room.<\/p>\n NATO\u2019s secretary general is chosen by consensus, with strong influence from the United States. And when the job came open in 2024, diplomats recognized Mr. Rutte’s rapport with Mr. Trump. Even former Biden administration officials said that his relationship with Mr. Trump made his candidacy more attractive, especially as it became clear that Mr. Trump could return to the White House.<\/p>\n But lately, some say he has gone too far. He has praised Mr. Trump for going to war in Iran, even though many European leaders have called the war illegal and Iran is outside NATO\u2019s area.<\/p>\n \u201cDid he need to compliment the president on the Iran war and urge Americans to support it?\u201d asked Julianne Smith, the U.S. ambassador to NATO under President Joe Biden. \u201cMany feel that crossed a line.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Rutte declined to be interviewed. But numerous NATO ambassadors say he has three major goals: To keep Mr. Trump and the United States fully engaged in NATO; to push Europe and Canada to increase military spending; and to keep U.S. and allied support flowing to Ukraine. In particular, that means ensuring that Washington continues to provide Kyiv with battlefield intelligence and keeps selling American weapons systems to the Europeans, who in turn provide them to Kyiv.<\/p>\n Staying close to Mr. Trump is vital to achieve those goals, they say. That\u2019s particularly true as the president occasionally questions NATO\u2019s mutual defense policy, known as Article 5.<\/p>\n \u201cAt NATO they say he knows he\u2019s prostituting himself for Trump, to try to prevent any escalation on Trump\u2019s part to further undermine the credibility of Article 5,\u201d said Jan Techau, a German former defense official who directs European security for the Eurasia Group. \u201cIt\u2019s not pretty, and deeply embarrassing for all of us, but he\u2019s concluded that\u2019s the only thing that works.\u201d<\/p>\n Jon Finer, who was a deputy national security adviser under Mr. Biden, once backed Mr. Rutte for the job. More recently, he said, he has told Mr. Rutte that appeasing Mr. Trump should not come at the cost of damaging the alliance. But, Mr. Finer conceded, the risks for Ukraine run high \u201cand he has to assess the level of risk with Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Rutte\u2019s defenders say that his friendliness toward Mr. Trump is part of his political calculus. \u201cHe always told me, \u2018You have to dance with the people you meet on the dance floor,\u2019\u201d said Jan Driessen, a former campaign strategist for Mr. Rutte in the Netherlands.<\/p>\n Mr. Rutte has close relationships with other world leaders, including President Emmanuel Macron of France and President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, and his supporters say that in his conversations with Mr. Trump, he often defends European interests.<\/p>\n The approach has yielded some successes. When Mr. Trump, angry at comments on Iran by Chancellor Friedrich Merz of Germany, suddenly announced he would withdraw 5,000 troops from Germany, Mr. Rutte worked with the top NATO commander, Gen. Alexus G. Grynkewich, an American, to minimize the damage.<\/p>\n But Mr. Rutte\u2019s engagement has not prevented Mr. Trump from calling NATO \u201ca paper tiger\u201d and questioning collective defense, raising doubts that Washington would come to Europe\u2019s aid in a crisis or a war. Nor did it prevent Mr. Hegseth from announcing the six-month review of forces in a blistering and highly critical speech.<\/a><\/p>\n The NATO secretary general reports to the North Atlantic Council, NATO\u2019s decision-making body, and traditionally speaks only after building consensus within the organization.<\/p>\n Mr. Rutte has repeatedly bucked that tradition, said Mr. Koster, the former NATO official. \u201cThe consensus at NATO at this point is really, really fragile, and he takes a huge risk by doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n
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