Using flattery, Rutte tries to ease NATO tensions with Trump over Iran

REUTERS ^ | June 24, 2026 | Humeyra Pamuk

[McGruff]

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte sought to calm tensions with President Donald Trump at the White House on Wednesday, using a mix ​of flattery and gentle pushback to argue that instances of allies' reluctance to support the U.S. war with Iran were limited to "isolated cases."

Trump, a longtime NATO critic who has called the alliance a "paper tiger," has been angered by allies' refusal to support the U.S. in the Middle East conflict or help reopen the Strait of Hormuz after a U.S.-Israeli attack on ​Iran on February 28 disrupted the major oil shipping route.

During the Oval Office meeting, Rutte used cardboard charts to show how much NATO countries have stepped up ​their defense spending since Trump first came into office in 2017.

Since Trump's return to office last year, one of Rutte's primary roles has been managing the president's hostility toward the alliance and preventing tense moments, including Trump's ​push to acquire Greenland, from spiraling into lasting crises.

[mikey_hates_everything]

The leader of the Soviet Union was called “General Secretary”. EU leadership just can’t hide the commie worship.

[Olog-hai]

The Parties to this Treaty reaffirm their faith in the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations and their desire to live in peace with all peoples and all governments. …

The Parties undertake, as set forth in the Charter of the United Nations, to settle any international dispute in which they may be involved by peaceful means in such a manner that international peace and security and justice are not endangered, and to refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force in any manner inconsistent with the purposes of the United Nations. …

That is the first sentence of the preamble and the entire Article 1 of the North Atlantic Treaty, respectively.

Problem is, the charter of the United Nations was based on the 1936 USSR constitution. Thus, both the United Nations and NATO were designed at the outset to be anti-USA and to work to undermine the USA, plus have the purpose of instituting world communism by the most insidious means.

[Olog-hai]

In its relations with the wider world, the Union shall uphold and promote its values and interests and contribute to the protection of its citizens. It shall contribute to peace, security, the sustainable development of the Earth, solidarity and mutual respect among peoples, free and fair trade, eradication of poverty and the protection of human rights, in particular the rights of the child, as well as to the strict observance and the development of international law, including respect for the principles of the United Nations Charter.

That is section 5 of article 3 of the Treaty of Lisbon, which is effectively the EUSSR’s constitution. Also an extension of the supposedly-defunct 1936 USSR constitution, via the venomous UN charter that Alger Hiss concocted all those decades ago.

[Cronos]

the NATO Secretary-general is basically “higher-ranking Secretary”. The role is specifically of a mediator and a spokeperson - the S-G doesn’t command troops and cannot pass any laws or enforce policies. Every single decision in NATO requires unanimous consensus among all member nations. The Secretary-General’s primary job is simply to chair meetings and help those nations find compromises

the USSR General secretary is the opposite - it is a General in charge of all the branch, regional secretaries. The Soviet General Secretary was a supreme political ruler who commanded an empire by controlling a political party from the top down

[Cronos]

The Treaty of Lisbon is not a constitution, but rather an amending treaty.

The EU did try to pass a formal “Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe” in 2004, but it failed completely after being rejected by voters in French and Dutch democratic referendums

The Lisbon text explicitly binds the EU to promote “free and fair trade”

btw, Algier hiss didn’t concost the UN charter - there was tons of people involved - the No. The UN Charter was a massive, collaborative geopolitical draft primarily designed by the major Allied powers (the US, UK, and USSR) during the Dumbarton Oaks Conference. Hiss was an administrative coordinator, not the author.

[Pete Dovgan]

NATO has been antagonistic and the cause of conflict. Ukraine war is the child of an expanding NATO and broken agreements. The European governments want an expanded NATO and Ukraines newly discovered oil and gas in their pocket. NATO wants US involvement in Ukraine, but it would not support the US on a mission to stop the largest supporter of worldwide terrorism from having thermonuclear warheads. NATO doesn’t exist for self protection, or it would have supported operations against Iran. It supports financial gain of European nations at the risk of American blood and treasure. That’s a problem that Trump seems clearly.

[Olog-hai]

You seem hell-bent on making excuses for the European Union, even in the face of the evidence of what it exactly is. Opus?

[Olog-hai]

Alger Hiss was general secretary of the San Francisco Conference that drafted the UN charter. Perhaps the consequences of his fall from grace slipped your mind?

I do not know what motivates your knee-jerk defenses of leftism.