NATO’s Rutte heads to White House to make peace with Trump

Rutte will arrive on Wednesday to speak with President Donald Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth.

The secretary-general, who has cultivated an image as somewhat of a Trump whisperer, said last month that alliance members “will always have different views,” but that all parties can agree on “not accepting Iran having a nuclear and missile capability.”

“What the United States is doing now is degrading that capability […] yes, I applaud that,” Rutte said.

FILE – President Donald Trump, right, meets with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte on the sidelines of the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Jan. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

The meeting will come just days after Trump said that NATO is nothing but a “paper tiger.”

During Monday’s press conference at the White House, Trump revealed that his ire toward the alliance began with Denmark’s