Trump to discuss leaving NATO in meeting with Rutte
US President Donald Trump met with NATO chief Mark Rutte to address alliance support in the Iran conflict and potential troop withdrawals.
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WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump held high-stakes talks with NATO chief Mark Rutte Wednesday (Apr 8), with the White House saying he would discuss the possibility of leaving the alliance after it failed to join the Iran war.
Trump was alternatively looking at punishing some NATO members he believed were unhelpful during the conflict by moving US troops out of their countries, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Rutte - the former Dutch premier dubbed the "Trump whisperer" for his skill in flattering the mercurial US leader - entered the West Wing through a side gate and their meeting was being held behind closed doors.
"It's quite sad that NATO turned their backs on the American people over the course of the last six weeks when it's the American people who have been funding their defence," White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters.
Asked if Trump would discuss a possible withdrawal from NATO, Leavitt said: "It's something the president has discussed, and I think it's something the president will be discussing in a couple of hours with Secretary General Rutte."
The meeting comes one day after the United States and Iran agreed to a fragile two-week ceasefire.
Trump has expressed anger at Western partners' refusal to back his war on Iran, rocking a transatlantic alliance that at the age of 77 is only two years younger than him.
The US leader has branded NATO a "paper tiger" for refusing to lead efforts to open the strategic Strait of Hormuz and for limiting US forces from using bases on their territories.
Trump has lashed out at several of them personally, lambasting UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer as "no Winston Churchill" and ridiculing Britain's aircraft carriers as "toys."
To punish NATO members seen as being unhelpful, the Trump administration is considering a plan to move out US troops and station them in other countries viewed as more supportive of the US war in Iran, according to a WSJ report.
But the plan would fall short of Trump's oft-hinted threats to pull the United States out of NATO entirely - a move for which he would need the approval of Congress.
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