Trump remains unhappy with NATO after meeting with Rutte. What the media is writing
US President Donald Trump received NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte at the White House. After the meeting, they both made it clear that Washington's relations with the alliance remain tense. Rutte acknowledged that European allies had not fulfilled their obligations during the war with Iran. How the world media assess the prospects of the United States in NATO is in the Izvestia digest.
Bloomberg: Trump criticized NATO over Iran after meeting with Rutte
Trump attacked NATO after meeting with the secretary General of the military alliance, Mark Rutte, making it clear that he was still very unhappy with the organization's position on the war with Iran. The former Dutch prime minister was in the United States to defuse Trump's public anger after NATO allies refused to help him protect merchant ships in the Strait of Hormuz or allow the United States to use some of its bases to attack Iran during the war that began on February 28.
Bloomberg
"The NATO countries weren't there when we needed them, and they won't be there if we need them again. Remember Greenland, this big, poorly managed piece of ice!!!" the president wrote in a message on his Truth Social platform on Wednesday evening [April 8].
Trump has been dismissive of NATO during both of his terms, and he can do a lot to undermine the United States or withdraw it from the alliance. The United States is an indispensable partner of NATO: 80,000 troops are stationed in Europe, and they play a central role in missile defense, nuclear deterrence, and intelligence sharing.
The Guardian: the head of NATO said that Trump was "clearly disappointed" by his refusal to join the war with Iran.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said Trump was "clearly disappointed" by the refusal of U.S. allies to join the war against Iran after a closed-door meeting in Washington on April 8. After that, he declined to directly answer whether Trump had raised the issue of his threat to withdraw from the military alliance because of the war with Iran, but described the conversation as a "very frank and open" discussion between "two good friends."
The Guardian
"He clearly told me what he thinks about what happened over the last couple of weeks," Rutte said, declining to answer specific questions about whether Trump had expressed a desire to withdraw from NATO. "It's a complicated picture." Although Rutte and Trump have had relatively warm relations in the past, this visit did little to soften the president's disdain for transatlantic military allies who did not support Washington during the war with Iran.
Also on the morning of April 8, Rutte met separately with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio. In a statement, the State Department said they discussed the war with Iran, as well as U.S. efforts to resolve the conflict in Ukraine through negotiations and "increased coordination and burden shifting with NATO allies."
The Washington Post: Trump avoided a break with NATO after meeting with the alliance's leader
Trump seems to have refrained from taking decisive action to change US relations with NATO after an important meeting with its leader, postponing his promised confrontation for a while due to Europe's cautious approach to his war with Iran. Ahead of the meeting with Rutte, the White House said that Trump plans to discuss the possibility of the United States withdrawing from the alliance, which poses a threat to an organization that has been the backbone of the defense of the United States and its partners for generations.
The Washington Post
Trump, who has long been skeptical of NATO, has been particularly angry in recent weeks at members of the alliance for refusing to participate in his attacks on Iran, saying they had not passed his test of readiness to support the United States if militarily necessary. He has repeatedly stated that the Europeans will soon find out about his response.
Rutte has shown such deference to Trump that last year he called the president daddy and welcomed the war with Iran. However, this campaign has strained Trump's relations with the European members of the alliance, who claim that the attack on Iran was both a violation of international law and a failed strategy. The rise of anti-American sentiment among their own voters further limits their willingness to obey Washington.
The Independent: Trump wants to punish allies who didn't help him.
Trump is considering a plan to punish NATO members who did not contribute to the war with Iran as much as he expected. The punishment will be that Washington will transfer American troops from bases in countries it is unhappy with to bases in participating countries that helped it in the war. In total, about 84,000 American troops are stationed in Europe.
The Independent
Although Trump did not specify which countries he intends to punish in the event of retaliatory measures against NATO members, some of them are more likely candidates than others. Spain not only refused to allocate 5% of its GDP to defense, but also did not allow the United States to use its airspace to attack Iran.
Italy briefly banned the United States from using one of its air bases in Sicily, and France allowed the United States to use only one of its air bases after the United States promised that it would land only those aircraft there that were not sent to strike Iran. Countries that could benefit from this plan include Poland, Lithuania, Greece, and Romania, as they supported Trump's war. But if the United States deploys more troops to them, it will also actually lead to an increase in the size of the group near Russia's western border, a step that is likely to be negatively perceived by Moscow.
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