Ahead of the private meeting, Trump had suggested the U.S. may consider leaving the trans-Atlantic alliance after NATO member countries ignored his call to help as Iran effectively shut the Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping waterway, and sent gas prices soaring.
Afterward, he issued an all-caps comment on social media suggesting he remained aggrieved. “NATO WASN’T THERE WHEN WE NEEDED THEM, AND THEY WON’T BE THERE IF WE NEED THEM AGAIN,” Trump said in his post. The White House did not immediately offer any further updates.
The Republican president has had a warm relationship with Rutte in the past, and the meeting came after the U.S. and Iran late Tuesday agreed to a two-week ceasefire that includes the reopening of the strait.
Earlier Wednesday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt acknowledged that Trump had discussed leaving NATO. “I think it’s something the president will be discussing in a couple of hours with Secretary-General Rutte,” Leavitt said.
Congress in 2023 passed a law that prevents any U.S. president from pulling out of NATO without its approval. Trump has been a longtime critic of NATO and in his first term had suggested he had the authority on his own to leave the alliance, which was founded in 1949 to counter the Cold War threat posed to European security by the Soviet Union.
The crux of the commitment its 32 member countries make is a mutual defense agreement in which an attack on one is considered an attack on them all. The only time it has been activated was in 2001, to support the United States in the wake of the Sept. 11 Islamic terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.
