During a closed-door meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte on April 8, US President Donald Trump expressed dissatisfaction with his allies for their withdrawal from the operation in Iran and indicated that he was considering retaliatory measures, Politico reported, citing two European officials and another source familiar with the matter.
A European official said that the meeting “went wrong”. "The conversation was nothing but a barrage of insults," he said, adding that Trump "apparently threatened to do almost anything."
A second European official, however, saw Rutte's visit as timely, as the meeting gave the US president a chance to "let off steam." Trump's posts on Truth Social since then have not contained any specific threats of action aimed at punishing NATO or individual allies, according to the source, which could be considered a "significant step forward." compared to the US leader's previous statements.
“It's still a turbulent time, but the alliance is lucky that Rutte was there at the time“, the European official noted.
Politico sources reported that at the meeting, Trump made it clear that he wanted NATO allies to take concrete action to quickly open the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has closed since the start of the US-Israeli military operation. Bloomberg reported this earlier, saying that Washington has asked European NATO allies to provide concrete plans to ensure the security of shipping in the Strait of Hormuz within a few days.
A White House spokesman told Politico that Trump did not make any demands of the alliance during his meeting with Rutte.
As two senior NATO diplomats told the publication, NATO members were not informed of the meeting until the evening of April 9 and have not yet begun discussing the deployment of military equipment to open the Strait of Hormuz.
At the same time, Der Spiegel reported that Rutte told European allies that Trump expects specific commitments to deploy warships in the Strait of Hormuz in the coming days. European NATO members viewed this as an ultimatum.
After meeting with Rutte, Trump wrote on Truth Social that NATO was not there when the United States needed it and expressed doubt that its allies would come to Washington's aid in the future. Rutte, however, said he understood the US president's frustration with NATO allies, noting that some European countries "failed the test" by refusing to help the United States in the war against Iran.
Bloomberg, citing sources, reported that European countries were unhappy with Rutte's unconditional support for the United States in the war with Iran. According to the agency's sources, this undermines NATO unity and creates false expectations in the American president.