{"id":315572,"date":"2026-04-08T22:39:57","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T17:09:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/?p=315572"},"modified":"2026-04-08T22:39:58","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T17:09:58","slug":"trump-to-fulfill-with-nato-chief-following-threats-to-depart-alliance-national","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/2026\/04\/08\/trump-to-fulfill-with-nato-chief-following-threats-to-depart-alliance-national\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump to fulfill with NATO chief following threats to depart alliance – National"},"content":{"rendered":"

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NATO Secretary-General\u00a0Mark Rutte\u00a0is anticipated to fulfill with President\u00a0Donald Trump\u00a0on Wednesday to attempt to smooth over the president\u2019s\u00a0anger with the military alliance\u00a0over\u00a0the Iran war.<\/p>\n

Trump had suggested the U.S. may consider leaving the trans-Atlantic alliance after NATO member countries ignored his call to assist reopen\u00a0the Strait of Hormuz, an important shipping waterway, as Iran effectively shut it and sent gas prices soaring.<\/p>\n

The Republican president\u2019s meeting with Rutte, with whom he had a warm relationship, comes because the U.S. and Iran late Tuesday\u00a0agreed to a two-week ceasefire\u00a0that features the reopening of the strait.<\/p>\n

The nascent ceasefire was struck after Trump said he would strike Iran\u2019s power plants and bridges, threatening that\u00a0\u201ca complete civilization will die tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n

The plan to reopen the strait continues to be cloudy and is anticipated to be a central focus of the Wednesday afternoon meeting with Rutte.<\/p>\n

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The White House said the meeting was expected to be behind closed doors. Within the Trump administration, though, that may change on the last minute, and meetings will be opened to the press.<\/p>\n

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Congress in 2023 passed a law that forestalls 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 depart\u00a0the alliance, which was founded in 1949 to counter the Cold War threat posed to European security by the Soviet Union.<\/p>\n

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The crux of the commitment its 32 member countries make is a mutual defence agreement by which an attack on one is taken into account an attack on all of them. The one time it has been activated was in 2001, to support america within the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks on Latest York and Washington.<\/p>\n

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Despite that,\u00a0Trump has complained\u00a0during his war of alternative with Iran that NATO has shown it is going to not be there for the U.S.<\/p>\n

Ahead of the meeting, Sen. Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, issued a press release Tuesday night in support of the alliance, noting that, \u201cFollowing the September eleventh attacks, NATO allies sent their young servicemembers to fight and die alongside America\u2019s own in Afghanistan and Iraq.\u201d<\/p>\n

McConnell, who sits on a committee overseeing defence spending, urged Trump to be \u201cclear and consistent\u201d and said it\u2019s not in America\u2019s interest to \u201cspend more time nursing grudges with allies who share our interests than deterring adversaries who threaten us.\u201d<\/p>\n

If Rutte\u2019s meeting doesn’t alleviate Trump\u2019s frustrations, it\u2019s unclear if the Trump administration would challenge the law barring a president from pulling out of NATO. When the law passed, it was championed by Trump\u2019s current secretary of state, Marco Rubio, who on the time was a senator from Florida.<\/p>\n

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