Head of NATO Visits U.S. President Acting Like Smug Cheshire Cat
It was quite a spectacle in the
Oval Office of the U.S. White House on March 13 when NATO
Secretary-General Mark Rutte met with U.S. President Donald
Trump. On one side, in a high-back armchair, sat Trump holding
court with acolytes and courtiers, while perched in the other
seat sat Rutte who had come to kiss the ring of the President.
And kiss the ring he repeatedly did, at one point even using the
term "dear Donald" to address Trump, heaping praise after praise
on the grinning President.
When looking at what Trump accomplished in the preceding couple of weeks, a beaming Rutte said to the President, it is all "really staggering." NATO has been "invigorated under your leadership." European members of NATO are buying four times more from the U.S.'s strong defence industry, he said. "[B]ut we need to do more," he said apologetically.
Then it was Trump's turn to boast endlessly about his accomplishments while Rutte nodded his head and held his hands like a supplicant in thrall to the Almighty.
Of course, Trump meeting with sycophantic world leaders in the Oval Office is not unusual, even a Canadian leader has been there to render homage. But NATO head Rutte has come at a particular time, one in which in the last few weeks Trump has repeatedly threatened the sovereignty of NATO members Canada and Denmark (Greenland) as well as Panama.
In the most arrogant, imperial style, Trump belittled the sovereignty of Canada, claiming that the boundary between the two countries "makes no sense," and previously threatening to use economic force to annex the country and convert it into the 51st state. In his comments on the possibility of defying Denmark by annexing Greenland, Trump made the veiled threat: "Maybe you'll see more and more [U.S.] soldiers go there," and even suggested that NATO could be involved.
So what did this illustrious head of NATO do at this meeting, given that all these insults and threats of aggression were being directed by "dear Donald" against Canada, Greenland, and other countries? In that regard, it must be kept in mind that NATO member countries are supposedly protected from invasion or attacks under Article 5 of the NATO Treaty. Yet this ever so brave head of NATO sat there with crossed legs and nary a peep of protest despite the President of the U.S. attacking and threatening other NATO members that Rutte is supposed to be responsible for.
Rutte made it all even worse in the Oval Office by claiming that seven of the Arctic countries were working together, "under U.S. leadership" of course, to keep the Arctic "safe." It is noteworthy that he failed to mention that the U.S. does not recognize Canada's sovereignty in the Arctic over the Northwest Passage nor of a substantial section of the resource-rich Beaufort Sea.
When we assess this shameful incident in the Oval Office, the question arises as to why Canada is in such a military alliance at all? How can it be that the head of NATO sits there smacking his lips gleefully like the proverbial smug Cheshire cat as the U.S. President threatens and fulminates against member countries such as Canada and Denmark?
There is something profoundly amiss with such an arrangement.
This article was published in
Volume 55
Number 3 - March 2025
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2025/Articles/M550038.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca