It's no secret that Mark Rutte is doing everything he can to please and appease Donald Trump. After all, that has been his main task as Secretary General of NATO, especially since the Republican's return to the White House, when Washington redoubled its threats to disengage from the Atlantic Alliance. However, the flattering tone of the Dutchman's personal message, revealed by the US president on his way to the allied summit in The Hague, assuring him that the agreement that all leaders must sign on Wednesday to agree on 5% of GDP as defense spending is a direct victory for the Republican, has surpassed all levels of embarrassment.
“You’re flying towards another great success in The Hague (…) It wasn’t easy, but we got everyone to sign the 5%,” Rutte wrote to Trump on Tuesday in a message sent via the high-security commercial messaging app Signal, the authenticity of which has been confirmed to EL PAÍS by NATO sources. “Europe will pay BIG, as it should, and it will be your victory,” the former Dutch prime minister added, using capital letters to emphasize awards, as the recipient of the message is fond of doing on social media.
Trump decided to reveal Rutte's message with a screenshot sent on his social media account, Truth, aboard Air Force One en route to The Hague, where he is attending the gala dinner at the Dutch royal palace this Tuesday to officially open the NATO summit. The main goal of the meeting of leaders is to agree on the 5% defense spending target demanded by Washington. The NATO Secretary of State tried to downplay the incident, defending the tone used as"appropriate" and adding that he had "no problem" with the screenshot being disseminated.
The message came shortly after Trump, in statements to reporters also aboard Air Force One, attacked Spain over President Pedro Sánchez's opposition to accepting that percentage, which—as Rutte told the American—is a personal achievement of the Republican."They have a problem with Spain. There's a problem with Spain, they don't agree. And that's very unfair to the others," Trump added.
Shortly afterward, the US president used his own social media platform to send another screenshot, a news story about Spain's opposition to the 5% target under the headline"Spain threatens to derail NATO summit." In it, the US president emphasizes that the United States will not condition its support for the Alliance on the spending increase it is demanding from its European partners—and Canada. But he also adds that his country is close to $1 trillion in defense spending:"This is incredible! I will discuss this soon with NATO members."
The tone of Rutte's message to Trump has caused a mixture of mockery and embarrassment among many of those attending the NATO summit in The Hague, the hometown of the Alliance's Secretary General."Donald," he says—in a display of the great trust that exists between the two, although it remains to be seen whether this revelation of a private message will upset it—"you have led us all to a truly important moment for America, for Europe, and for the world. You are going to achieve what NO other American president has achieved in decades," the Dutchman adds.
That detail is true: this very Tuesday, at a forum prior to the meeting of allied heads of state and government, several analysts recalled that every US president since Franklin D. Roosevelt—that is, since the end of World War II—has demanded that Europe spend more on defense. Democrat Barack Obama also did so explicitly in 2014, when the now-multiplied 2% defense spending target was agreed upon, just after the Russian invasion of Crimea. It was also a demand of Trump during his first term. In 2018, at another NATO summit, this time in Brussels, he was even on the verge of ordering the US to withdraw from the Alliance, frustrated at not getting a greater spending commitment from European allies. Seven years later, Rutte wants to avoid a similar tragedy at all costs, so he has spared no effort to hold a summit tailored to the Republican magnate and seeking to avoid any surprises.
Rutte's message was sent, as the screenshot clearly showed, via the commercial secure messaging app Signal—the same app that indirectly sparked one of the biggest scandals the Trump administration has experienced in its first few months, the so-called Signalgate. At the time, National Security Adviser Mike Waltz inadvertently included a journalist in a group he had created to discuss attacks being prepared against the Houthi militias in Yemen. In the chat, senior government officials discussed confidential details of the operation, with no apparent concern about the possibility that the data could fall into the wrong hands, whether it be enemy governments, hackers, or reporters included in the group.
The use of this app, widely used among congressmen, advisors, and senior officials, is theoretically prohibited for classified government communications, which must use specific secure systems. The app is also widely used in Brussels, both within NATO and the EU institutions.
As a result of that scandal, Trump eventually fired Waltz. This was not the case with other participants in the group who included the most confidential details, such as Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. Signalgate also revealed the extent to which the app's use is widespread among senior US officials. Including, as Rutte's message made clear, the president himself.
In the Signal message revealed by Trump, Rutte, who has publicly measured his response to the US decision to bomb three Iranian nuclear facilities, openly celebrates what he considers another American success:"Congratulations on your decisive action in Iran, which was truly extraordinary and something no one else dared to do. You have made us all safer," he lavished praise on the president.
