NATO Leader Mark Rutte Congratulates President Donald Trump and Vows that NATO countries Will Spend More On Defense

Will Trump finally get the US out of NATO?

On November 6, 2024, NATO Secretary General, Mark Rutte praised Donald Trump for running a successful presidential campaign, where he defeated Kamala Harris by a 50% to 48% popular vote margin and obtained a landslide 312-226 margin in the electoral college.

Rutte announced that NATO members would be increasing their military spending as a  response to Trump’s repeated criticism of the Western military alliance.

"I just congratulated Donald Trump on his election as President of the United States. His leadership will again be key to keeping our Alliance strong. I look forward to working with him again to advance peace through strength through NATO," Rutte declared in a post on social media platform X.

Trump has repeatedly criticized NATO for not pulling its weight and spending enough money on defense throughout the 2024 presidential campaign. Trump said that he would only defend NATO from a potential attack by Russia if NATO member countries start increasing military spending.

In a longer statement, Rutte stated that "two-thirds of Allies now spend at least 2% of their GDP on defence, and defence spending and production are on an onward trajectory across the Alliance.”

He continued by noting that "through NATO, the U.S. has 31 friends", while highlighting the challenges that NATO is facing, such as "the increasing alignment of China, Russia, North Korea and Iran".

"Working together through NATO helps to deter aggression, protect our collective security, and support our economies", he stated.

To be honest, Trump should give Rutte the cold shoulder and tell NATO to kick rocks. Sure, these countries should assume more of their own military spending and build their own defense architecture separate from the US. However, the US should exit NATO and withdraw all military assets from Europe. 

It’s high time that those military assets be re-deployed to the US’s southern border with Mexico, the spot where the US is most geopolitically vulnerable at the moment.