A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte met with President Trump at the White House on Wednesday. Trump has repeatedly slammed NATO, and he continued on Wednesday.
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: We were disappointed with the U.K. We were disappointed with Germany and France. We were disappointed with - most of Spain is a horror show.
MARTÍNEZ: But pointing at Rutte, Trump said, I have great respect for this man. We're joined now by reporter Teri Schultz in Brussels, who covers NATO closely.
Teri, Rutte made this trip primarily to work on issues ahead of a crucial NATO summit in Turkey. What's he worried about?
TERI SCHULTZ, BYLINE: It's very much on Rutte's shoulders to ensure that NATO can come out of every meeting, especially a summit with all 32 heads of state and government say they're more united than ever. And this continuous criticism of NATO and of individual countries makes that difficult. Trump actually said yesterday that if it weren't being hosted by Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whom he likes, he probably wouldn't come. And that was an open threat last year ahead of the summit in the Hague, that if all allies didn't agree to raise their defense spending to 5% of GDP, he wouldn't show up. The flip side of that, of course, is that increasing their defense spending was absolutely necessary in the view of many experts and most governments themselves. So then this U.S. pressure is actually useful to make it happen.
MARTÍNEZ: OK. Now, Rutte is often called the Trump whisperer because he's managed to keep the president in the alliance. So is that an accurate portrayal? Does that hold water to you?
SCHULTZ: Absolutely. And he has managed to turn Trump's negativity around in some cases. But there are a lot of things going on right now, and the pressure on Rutte is immense. His flattery of the U.S. president, his trademark tactic, which is controversial, increases accordingly. Trump's fury that many NATO countries didn't enthusiastically join or even support his war on Iran has been a very divisive issue in the transatlantic relationship and for Rutte himself, who made multiple statements that were very favorable toward Trump's attacks, despite that not being the NATO consensus. Now, Trump called NATO a paper tiger repeatedly, saying allies had failed the U.S., even though he never officially asked NATO to take part. And you can hear Rutte's attempt in the Oval Office to convince Trump that this political opposition didn't actually hinder the military efforts.
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MARK RUTTE: I know there have been debates about whether your allies in Europe were with you enough. I just want to say one thing, which is...
TRUMP: They weren't.
RUTTE: Yeah, I would like to same one thing, which is...
SCHULTZ: So Trump says they weren't. Now, what Rutte then went on to say is that as many as 5,000 planes did take off from Europe during the war on Iran. But the fact remains - and Trump knows it - many governments were against the war.
MARTÍNEZ: Rutte also made the case that Trump's push for Europeans to spend more on defense has paid off, so to speak?
SCHULTZ: That's right. And Rutte came highly prepared for this argument with multiple visual displays. One chart was titled The Trump Trillion and showed that since the first Trump administration, the Europeans and Canada have spent more than $1 trillion more on defense.
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RUTTE: This is because of Russia, because of the threat, but I'm also absolutely convinced that you being president of the United States, being consistently pushing for something which since Eisenhower has not been achieved, which is the Europeans equalizing their defense spending with the United States. This is your evidence.
SCHULTZ: And he also had data on how many more jobs are being created in the U.S. due to this. So he was prepared. But what's really crucial for NATO's European members now is to figure out how they'll replace the military capabilities the U.S. is making increasingly clear it will remove from the plans to protect Europe to other areas that Washington prioritizes, A.
MARTÍNEZ: That's reporter Teri Schultz in Brussels. Teri, thanks.
SCHULTZ: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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