President Donald Trump mused at length over his desire to absorb two countries protected by the NATO alliance on Thursday in a White House meeting with Secretary-General Mark Rutte.
Both Canada and Greenland, which is included in NATO as the territory of founding member Denmark, were raised during an informal press conference in the Oval Office. In the meeting, Trump also applied new pressure on the trans-Atlantic alliance to spend more on its collective defense.
Of Greenland, Trump quipped to reporters that Rutte could play a role in helping the United States with the island, contending, “We really need it for national security.”
“I’m sitting with a man that could be very instrumental,” Trump told reporters of Rutte and Greenland. “We need that for international security, not just security, international.”
Rutte, formerly the longest-serving prime minister of the Netherlands, a country whose political system depends on leaders forming coalition governments, diplomatically sidestepped Trump’s appeal.
“I don’t want to direct NATO in that, but when it comes to the high north and the Arctic, you are totally right,” Rutte said. “The Chinese are abusing these rules. We know that the Russians are the army. We know we have a lack of icebreakers.”
Undeterred, Trump argued that this week’s elections in Greenland were “good” for him despite the likely new prime minister’s Demokraatit Party campaigning on a path to Greenlandic independence.
“We’ve been dealing with Denmark, we’ve been dealing with Greenland, and we have to do it,” Trump said. “We really need it for national security. I think that’s why NATO might be, have to get involved in a way.”
Then of Canada, Trump reiterated that he would not “bend” regarding tariffs as administration officials met with their Canadian counterparts on Thursday over the U.S.’s wave of duties this week on steel and other goods.
“There’ll be a little disruption, but it won’t be very long,” Trump said. “They need us, we really don’t need them. And we have to do this, I’m sorry.”
Instead, Trump claimed Canada “only works as a state” of the U.S., but that he would permit it to keep its national anthem.
“It would be one of the great states,” Trump said. “This would be the most incredible country visually. If you look at a map, they drew an artificial line right through it, between Canada and the U.S., just a straight artificial line. Somebody did a long time ago, many, many decades ago, and it makes no sense.”
Trump’s meeting with Rutte comes as the president and his allies increasingly criticize NATO and call into question the U.S.’s place in the 76-year-old alliance.
In 2017, during Trump’s first administration, the president started putting pressure on NATO members to meet the internally agreed-upon target of spending 2% of their respective economies’ gross domestic products on defense. Last year, 23 out of the 32 NATO countries met that target, an improvement compared to 2018 when only six could report the same.
But then as he prepared for his second presidency, Trump announced that he is raising his demand to 5%, a target the U.S. itself does not meet. In 2024, the U.S. spent almost $1 trillion on defense, which is 3.4% of its GDP.
“I’m quite confident, as he always does when it comes to NATO, he will urge the NATO secretary the president’s belief that NATO countries need to pay their fair share for their own defense,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told the Washington Examiner on Wednesday. “We have been spending billions and billions of dollars on NATO, which the president agrees with so long as other countries are paying their fair share.”
At the same time, Elon Musk, the billionaire entrepreneur and close ally of Trump, has proposed that the U.S. withdraw from NATO.
“We really should,” Musk wrote on social media. “Doesn’t make sense for America to pay for the defense of Europe.”
Trump himself was asked about whether the U.S. has a future in NATO during his meeting this week with Irish Taoiseach Micheal Martin.
“NATO has to treat us fairly,” Trump said. “If they pay their bills and if they do what they’re supposed to do … NATO can be a force for the good, absolutely.”
During his meeting with Trump, Rutte underscored the change Trump has already hastened in Europe regarding defense spending after previewing the U.S. would no longer endlessly arm Ukraine.
“You originated the fact that in Europe we’re now spending, when you take it to aggregate, 700 billion [euro] more on defense than when you came into office in 2016-2017,” Rutte said. “That was Trump 45. But then when you look at Trump 47, what happened the last couple of weeks is really staggering: The Europeans committing to a package of 800 billion [euro] in defense spending. The Germans now potentially up to half a trillion extra in defense spending. And then of course you had Keir Starmer here, the British prime minister and others all committing to much higher defense spending.”
He added, “We need to do more, but I really want to work together with you in the run-up to the NATO summit to make sure that we will have a NATO which is really reinvigorated under your leadership and we are getting there.”
Rutte also raised the importance of defense production both in the U.S. and Europe since the alliance is “lagging behind” compared to China and Russia.
“Finally, Ukraine, you broke the deadlock,” Rutte continued. “The fact that you did that, that you started the dialogue with the Russians and the successful talks in Saudi Arabia now with the Ukrainians. I really want to commend you for this.”
Rutte’s meeting at the White House came as Middle East special envoy Steve Witkoff prepared for his own sitdown with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow in the Trump administration’s latest attempt to end Russia’s three-year war with Ukraine.
Earlier in the day, Putin was accompanied by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko for a joint press conference at the Kremlin after the two countries promised to take military action in response to any new military measures from NATO members.
Putin remained adamant that he is pursuing a ceasefire deal after Ukraine accepted a temporary pause but scrutinized the terms as disadvantageous for Russia.
“We need to talk to our American colleagues and partners about this, maybe call President Trump and discuss it with him, but we support the idea of ending this conflict by peaceful means,” he said. “We agree with the proposals to stop hostilities, but we start from the position that this cessation should lead to a long-term peace and eliminate the causes of this crisis.”
Rutte made headlines in 2018 during his trip to the White House as prime minister amid heightened tensions over Trump’s trade negotiations with the European Union.
During their Oval Office meeting at the time, Trump expressed optimism regarding a deal but suggested that it would be a “positive” sitdown regardless of whether he and Rutte reached an understanding.
“No, it’s not positive,” Rutte said. “We have to work something out.”
In spite of Rutte’s directness, the two men have a cordial relationship, with Rutte’s reputation as a Trump whisperer contributing to the support he received to become the new NATO secretary general last October.