The End of 'Daddy' Diplomacy
NATO Secretary Mark Rutte's flattery of Trump is wearing thin
Earlier this week, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte traveled to Washington to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump, in an effort to soothe tensions after Trump has been berating the mutual-defense alliance for not helping in his war with Iran. Afterwards, Rutte characterized the April 8 meeting as “a discussion between two good friends.” Trump, however, had a different take on the closed-door summit. Afterwards, he posted on social media: “NATO WASN’T THERE WHEN WE NEEDED THEM, AND THEY WON’T BE THERE IF WE NEED THEM AGAIN. REMEMBER GREENLAND, THAT BIG, POORLY RUN, PIECE OF ICE!!!”
In Trump’s second term, Rutte has tried to keep the U.S. president from making good on his threat to leave the alliance with flattery, even referring to him as “daddy.” Rutte has defended his strategy as necessary, because, in his view, Europe can’t defend itself without the U.S.; in January, he told critics to “keep on dreaming” if they think that Europe can defend itself alone. While the brown-nosing strategy might have been defensible had it actually achieved its goal of keeping Trump on Europe’s side in case of a Russian attack, it seems unlikely that Trump will come to Europe’s aid because of a charm offensive. And while it seems unlikely that Trump will actually call on the U.S. Senate to authorize NATO withdrawal, casting doubt on whether the U.S. will defend Europe is equivalent to leaving, since the alliance is based on the presumption of mutual defense.
Trump has only backed off of threats against Europe when the continent has shown that it actually can defend itself.
