Trump lashes NATO after ‘frank and open’ Rutte meeting – POLITICO

U.S. President Donald Trump tore into NATO after a roughly two-hour private meeting with Secretary-General Mark Rutte on Wednesday, underscoring the transatlantic rift following what the military alliance chief described as a blunt exchange of views.

Trump went into the talks openly entertaining an American withdrawal from the alliance after NATO members rejected his call to join the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran. “I would say [it’s] beyond reconsideration,” he said last week, when asked whether he might rethink America’s NATO membership after the conflict.

The meeting appears to have done little to soften his stance. Trump was back on Truth Social with a full-throated broadside Wednesday evening: “NATO WASN’T THERE WHEN WE NEEDED THEM, AND THEY WON’T BE THERE IF WE NEED THEM AGAIN.”