'Trump whisperer' Rutte helps ease Nato crisis

As tensions over Greenland between Donald Trump and Europe neared boiling point last week, Nato boss Mark Rutte cemented his reputation as a “Trump whisperer” after the US president dropped his tariff threats following a meeting in Davos.

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Mark Rutte, secretary general of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, during the World Economic Forum in Davos.

(PHOTO: BLOOMBERG)

Mr Trump said he and Mr Rutte agreed on a “framework of a future deal” on the entire Arctic Region, which would be “a great one for the United States of America, and all Nato Nations”

While details were scant, the outcome was a diplomatic win for Mr Rutte that steered the fraying transatlantic alliance back from the precipice, diplomats and political analysts said.

Mr Rutte, who served as Dutch prime minister for 14 years, was already known as “the Trump whisperer” in European newspapers when he took up the Nato job a month before Mr Trump's reelection in 2024, based on their rapport during Mr Trump's first term.

His strategy is not subtle — it is built on lavishing praise on the US president, even as other European leaders are increasingly critical of Mr Trump.

“The work of the Secretary General of Nato is always important. And when it’s manifested in the personality of Mark Rutte, who's cool, calm, and collected, and is able to talk with the president of the United States, we should just be thankful that he’s our secretary general right now,” Finnish President Alexander Stubb told Reuters in Davos.