It was on Tuesday that Mark Rutte messaged the president and both congratulated and thanked for Trump's "decisive intervention in Iran". He referred to the twelve-day war between Iran and Israel that ended with a ceasefire on the same day. This happened after the US over the weekend bombed Iran's nuclear power plants with super-heavy so-called "bunker busters".
Rutte: Is true
"Completely extraordinary and something that no one else has dared to do. It makes us all safer", he continued to write.
Rutte denies that it would be embarrassing that Trump chose to publish the SMS in its entirety shortly after Rutte had sent it.
No, it's absolutely not. It's true what's in the message. It's a statement of fact. And it's perfectly okay for me that he shared it, he says on arrival at the NATO summit in The Hague.
Before Rutte took office as Secretary General, he was seen as a "Trump whisperer" for his way of getting through to the president during his first term.
"A man of peace"
During a joint press conference with Donald Trump at the NATO summit, later on Wednesday, Rutte continues the praise: He praises the president and says it is to his credit that there is a 5 percent target for defense spending on the table for member countries. He also brought it up in the SMS where he wrote "Europe will have to pay big, as it should and it will be your victory".
You are a man of strength but also a man of peace, says Rutte during the press conference.
The NATO Secretary General simultaneously avoided commenting on the attacks on the media that Donald Trump made during the press conference.
