NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte refused to play along with the New York Times’ anti-Trump narrative during a recent interview, instead praising President Donald Trump’s leadership and crediting him with the historic defense spending agreement reached at the NATO summit.
Rutte, a former Dutch prime minister who became Secretary General in 2024, has been openly supportive of Trump’s demands that European nations stop freeloading and finally contribute their fair share to collective defense.
NYT Tries to Trap Rutte With Loaded Questions
In a new interview with Lulu Garcia-Navarro of the New York Times, Rutte was repeatedly pushed to criticize President Trump, but he refused to take the bait.
“He sees it as European nations basically funding their welfare states… at the expense of American defense. You think that view is fair?” the NYT reporter asked.
Rutte’s response?
“The second half of the view is fair… the American president, Trump, very much realizes… for the US to stay strong and safe, there is this embeddedness with European security.”
In other words, Trump is right about Europe underpaying, and he’s smart enough to know NATO is critical to U.S. strength.
“Trump Deserves All the Praise”
Garcia-Navarro’s follow-up was even more biased — claiming NATO has become the “North Atlantic Trump Organization” and asking if Rutte was “groveling” to Trump.
Rutte didn’t flinch.
“Let’s face what is happening. There were seven or eight countries in Europe not at 2 percent. This was the four, so now it’s 5 percent — a new benchmark,” Rutte said.
Then he gave Trump full credit for the turnaround:
“Do we really think… we would have been able… to agree to that 5% if Trump would not have been reelected as President of the United States?”
“So I think when somebody deserves praise, that praise should be given. And President Trump deserves all the praise because without his leadership, without him being reelected… we would never, ever, ever have been able to achieve agreement on this.”
🚨NEW: NYT’s Lulu Garcia-Navarro *repeatedly* asks NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte anti-Trump questions — he doesn’t bite🚨
RUTTE: “Let’s face what is happening: There were 7 or 8 countries in Europe not at 2%. So now it’s 5% — a new benchmark.”
“Do we really think that we… pic.twitter.com/2psRvEE4pY
— Jason Cohen 🇺🇸 (@JasonJournoDC) July 5, 2025
Trump Forces NATO Into Action After Decades of Freeloading
Trump’s tough love for NATO — long mocked by the globalist media and D.C. think tanks — is now producing historic results:
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Under Trump’s leadership, NATO countries are moving toward 5% of GDP on defense spending
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The U.S. no longer foots the bill for socialist European welfare states
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Allies are finally stepping up and acknowledging American leadership
