Trump cuts off NATO's Mark Rutte with a blunt two word response on Iran war support

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte on Wednesday met with President Donald Trump at the Oval Office as he sought to calm tensions between the U.S.- Europe alliance.  Rutte employed flattery and a gentle pushback to Trump's claims that the Europe was reluctant to support the U.S. war with Iran, but his attempts were met with force and a blunt two-word response from Trump, who listed out the countries he felt weren't loyal to the U.S. 

Trump, a longtime NATO critic, has long been angered by the allies' refusal to support the U.S. in the Middle East conflict or help reopen the Strait of Hormuz. The NATO chief is reportedly visiting Washington to try to ease the strains amid U.S. threats of troop withdrawal ahead of a pivotal NATO leaders' summit in July in Ankara, Turkey. He met the President and a broader U.S. delegation in the Oval Office, and at one point in the meeting, he claimed the pushback from Europe was limited to certain isolated cases. "I know there have been debates about whether your allies in Europe were with you enough. I just want to say one thing," Rutte said before Trump interjected with two blunt words: "They weren't." 

The NATO General Secretary then tried to recollect his thoughts as he stammered, "Let me say one thing. I know you think that, and I know about, let's say, your irritation with that, but when you look at the numbers, 4,000- 5,000 US planes [took] off from bases in Europe in the six weeks this war took place," adding, "I know there have been isolated cases about which you are really disappointed, but generally speaking, your European allies have been there."

Rutte also seemed to have come prepared to sway the U.S. President's opinion as he swiftly moved on to show some charts to flatter him. Rising from his seat, the former Dutch Prime Minister pulled out"The Trump Trillion" and "The Trump 47 Effect," charts showing increased Canadian and European defense spending since Trump took office. "I want to show you what this president was able to achieve," he gushed. Pointing to one of the charts, Rutte said the NATO spending was "over $250 billion" after Trump came to power. "I can assure you this is because of Russia, because of the threat," he said, adding, "I am also absolutely convinced that you, being president of the United States, made the difference, pushing for something which, since Eisenhower, has not been achieved: which is the Europeans equalizing their defense spending with the United States." 

However, Trump appeared to be largely unconvinced at times, but he praised Rutte's leadership. "You really have done a good job, and I think if anybody else were in that position, we wouldn't even be meeting today, to be honest with you, because we were let down," Trump said as per Reuters. He then went on to add that he was disappointed with the U.K., Germany, and France before calling Spain a "horror show." But, he mentioned that he was impressed by Poland and confirmed that he would attend next month's NATO summit in Turkey only out of "respect" for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.