{"id":535186,"date":"2026-01-22T18:36:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T18:36:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/535186\/"},"modified":"2026-01-22T18:36:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T18:36:13","slug":"nato-chief-rutte-transforms-from-teflon-mark-to-a-trump-whisperer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/535186\/","title":{"rendered":"NATO chief Rutte transforms from ‘Teflon Mark’ to a ‘Trump whisperer’"},"content":{"rendered":"

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) \u2014 For days it seemed there was no way out of the latest standoff<\/a> between Europe and the United States: U.S. President Donald Trump insisted he must have Greenland \u2014 and would settle for nothing short of total ownership.<\/p>\n

Even after he dropped the threat of force in a speech in Davos, Switzerland, on Wednesday, the impasse remained. Enter: Mark Rutte<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The NATO<\/a> secretary-general may have been instrumental in persuading Trump to scrap the threat of slapping punitive tariffs<\/a> on eight European nations to press for U.S. control over Greenland<\/a> \u2014 a stunning reversal shortly after insisting he wanted to get the island \u201cincluding right, title and ownership.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a post on his social media site, Trump said he had agreed with Rutte on a \u201cframework of a future deal\u201d on Arctic security at the World Economic Forum in Davos, potentially defusing tensions that had far-reaching geopolitical implications.<\/p>\n

Little is known about what the agreement entails or how crucial Rutte\u2019s intervention was, and Trump could change course again. But for now, Rutte has earned his reputation as a \u201cTrump whisperer.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s only the latest nickname for the man long known as \u201cTeflon Mark\u201d<\/a> during his domination of Dutch politics for a dozen years.<\/p>\n

\u2018Trump whisperer\u2019<\/p>\n

Rutte\u2019s reputation for successfully charming the U.S. president took flight last year when he referred to Donald Trump as \u201cdaddy\u201d during an alliance summit in The Hague and sent him a flattering text message<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Matthew Kroenig, vice president and senior director of the Atlantic Council\u2019s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security, said the dramatic scenes in Davos underscored Rutte\u2019s ability to keep NATO\u2019s most powerful leader on board.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Secretary-General Rutte has emerged as one of Europe\u2019s most effective diplomats and Trump whisperers,\u201d Kroenig said. \u201cHe does seem to have a way of speaking to Trump that keeps the United States and the Trump administration engaged in NATO in a constructive way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rutte\u2019s success in dealing with Trump appears to revolve around his willingness to use charm and flattery while revealing little of what the two leaders discuss. It\u2019s a tactic that Rutte used to marshal coalition partners in nearly 13 years as Dutch prime minister.<\/p>\n

Trump himself highlighted Rutte\u2019s effusive friendliness before he set off for Davos this week, publishing a text message from the NATO chief on his Truth Social platform. In it, Rutte addresses \u201cMr. President, dear Donald\u201d and praises Trump for his diplomacy in Syria, Gaza and Ukraine.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am committed to finding a way forward on Greenland. Can\u2019t wait to see you. Yours, Mark,\u201d the message ended.<\/p>\n

Teflon Mark<\/p>\n

Rutte became a poster boy for Dutch consensus politics while leading four often fractious ruling coalitions on his way to becoming the Netherlands\u2019 longest-serving leader, surviving a number of domestic political scandals over the years and earning the nickname \u201cTeflon Mark\u201d because the fallout never seemed to stick to him for long.<\/p>\n

The back cover of a 2016 book about Rutte by Dutch journalist Sheila Sitalsing, who followed him when he was prime minister, calls him \u201ca phenomenon.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWith indestructible cheerfulness he navigates the fragmented political landscape, recklessly forges the most extraordinary alliances and steadily works towards a new Netherlands,\u201d it adds.<\/p>\n

Rutte and his government resigned in 2021<\/a> to take responsibility for a child care allowance scandal in which thousands of parents were wrongly accused of fraud. But he bounced back to win national elections two months later with a slightly larger share of the vote and began his fourth and last term in office.<\/p>\n

In another scandal that he survived, Rutte said in an interview that he couldn\u2019t recall being informed about the Dutch bombing of Hawija that killed dozens of Iraqi civilians in 2015. In 2022, he survived a no-confidence motion in parliament in a debate about deleting messages<\/a> from his old-school Nokia cellphone. Critics accused him of concealing state activity \u2014 but he insisted the messages just took up too much space in his phone.<\/p>\n

Opposition lawmaker Attje Kuiken quipped: \u201cIt appears that the prime minister\u2019s phone memory is used just as selectively as the prime minister\u2019s own memory.\u201d<\/p>\n

His winning smile and enduring optimism, along with his habit of riding his bicycle to work while chomping on an apple seemed to help cement his popularity in the Netherlands, where such down-to-earth behavior is prized. When his last coalition collapsed in 2023 in a dispute over reining in migration, Rutte again leaned on that image, driving an old Saab station wagon to a royal palace to hand his resignation to King Willem-Alexander.<\/p>\n

From The Hague to Brussels<\/p>\n

Just landing the NATO chief\u2019s job showed how adept Rutte is at navigating turbulent geopolitical waters. He managed to convince entrenched doubters, including Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orb\u00e1n<\/a> and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan<\/a>, to back his candidacy.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt took a very long time. It\u2019s a complicated process, but it\u2019s an honor that it appears to have happened,\u201d Rutte told reporters after securing all the support he needed to become secretary-general.<\/p>\n

Rutte\u2019s soft diplomatic skills were seen as a key asset for the leader of the 32-nation alliance as it faced Trump\u2019s repeated criticism while navigating how to support Ukraine in the war against Russia.<\/p>\n

Several hours before Trump made his dramatic reversal on Greenland, Finnish President Alexander Stubb \u2014 another European leader credited with having a way with Trump<\/a> \u2014 was asked during a panel discussion on European security in Davos \u201cwho or what can diffuse the tensions\u201d over Greenland?<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, Mark Rutte,\u201d Stubb said, to laughter in the audience and among the panel that included the Dutchman himself.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press writers Lorne Cook in Brussels and Ali Swenson in Washington contributed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) \u2014 For days it seemed there was no way out of the latest standoff…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":535187,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[88257,7838,69,12042,90,440,57,86,8298,3464,236848,8955,8959,6576,50,8961,80,32307,235115,236847,8956,67,16815,103,107],"class_list":{"0":"post-535186","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-alexander-stubb","9":"tag-diplomacy","10":"tag-donald-trump","11":"tag-economic-policy","12":"tag-elections","13":"tag-europe","14":"tag-general-news","15":"tag-government-policy","16":"tag-greenland","17":"tag-international-agreements","18":"tag-king-willem-alexander","19":"tag-mark-rutte","20":"tag-nato","21":"tag-netherlands","22":"tag-news","23":"tag-north-atlantic-treaty-organization","24":"tag-politics","25":"tag-recep-tayyip-erdogan","26":"tag-send-to-apple-news","27":"tag-sheila-sitalsing","28":"tag-the-hague","29":"tag-united-states","30":"tag-viktor-orban","31":"tag-world","32":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115940201879331589","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/535186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=535186"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/535186\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/535187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=535186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=535186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=535186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}