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Trump Warns Rutte US May Not Be There When NATO Needs It

Trump said NATO was “tested and failed,” but former ambassador to NATO Ivo Daalder argued the alliance has passed far tougher tests.

Kyiv Post

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9 aprile 2026

4 min read

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US President Donald Trump has long criticized NATO, calling some allies freeloaders and dismissing the alliance as a “paper tiger.” Ahead of his meeting with NATO chief Mark Rutte on Wednesday, it was clear that those complaints would dominate the discussion, along with the possibility of a US withdrawal from the alliance.

Rutte, the former Dutch prime minister often described as skillful in flattering the US leader, sought to soften the blow by arguing that many European countries had contributed in practical ways even if they had not joined the military campaign in the way Trump wanted.

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“He is clearly disappointed with many NATO allies, and I can see his point,” Rutte said in his interview with CNN’s Jack Tapper. “But at the same time, I was able to point out that most European nations have been helpful with basing, logistics and overflights, and in making sure they lived up to their commitments. There is also widespread support for the view that degrading Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile capabilities was crucial, and that only the US was able to do that at this point.”

The White House made clear before the talks that the future of the alliance itself would be part of the conversation. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt quoted Trump as saying NATO had been “tested, and failed,” and said it was “quite sad that NATO turned their backs on the American people” during the conflict.

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After the meeting, Trump posted on Truth Social that “NATO WASN’T THERE WHEN WE NEEDED THEM, AND THEY WON’T BE THERE IF WE NEED THEM AGAIN.” He has accused some NATO members of refusing to provide airspace and declining to join military efforts to secure the Strait of Hormuz.

On Tuesday the US and Iran agreed to a fragile two-week ceasefire, a move welcomed by European leaders as a chance to create space for diplomacy and restore safer shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. But the ceasefire has done little to calm the dispute between Washington and its allies over the conduct of the war itself.

While full NATO withdrawal requires congressional approval, Trump was also considering other ways to get back at countries he believed had been unhelpful. The administration hinted that it is weighing moving of US troops out of some NATO countries seen as less supportive during the Iran war and redeploying them to states viewed as more cooperative.

Former US ambassador to NATO Ivo Daalder rejected the idea that the alliance had somehow failed a loyalty test over Iran, arguing that NATO was never asked to take part in the first place.

“NATO was truly tested after September 11, when it invoked Article 5 for the first and only time in its history to come to the aid of the United States,” Daalder told CBS News. “It was tested again in Afghanistan, when allies deployed tens of thousands of troops not because they saw it as essential to their own security, but because they believed it mattered to America’s.”

On Trump’s suggestion that NATO cannot exist without the United States, Daalder said Washington remains the backbone of the alliance, but warned against dismissing Europe’s military weight.

“The US is the skeleton of NATO, but there are still 31 other countries. They spend collectively more than half a trillion dollars, and they have real military capability. In fact, they have some capabilities we do not. One of the issues that I’m sure will come up soon is whether the Europeans will send minesweepers into the Gulf. Because guess what? We got rid of our minesweepers, in part because our allies have that capability,” Daalder said.