“Mr. President, dear Donald,” Rutte's message began, as seen by a screenshot Trump posted on his social media network. “Congratulations and thank you for your decisive action in Iran, that was truly extraordinary, and something no one else dared to do. It makes us all safer.”
The fawning tone may have been an attempt to butter up Trump ahead of a key meeting — the kind of effusive praise that British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has adopted lately in negotiating and then announcing a recent trade agreement between the United Kingdom and the U.S. that is meant to ease Trump's promised steep tariffs on imported British goods.
Rutte continued, “You are flying into another big success in The Hague this evening. It was not easy but we’ve got them all signed onto 5 percent!” — a reference to other NATO member countries mostly having signed onto the new pledge to spend 5% of their gross domestic product on defense, a demand the Republican president has pushed for months.
“Donald, you have driven us to a really, really important moment for America and Europe, and the world. You will achieve something NO American president in decades could get done,” Rutte wrote. “Europe is going to pay in a BIG way, as they should, and it will be your win. Safe travels and see you at His Majesty’s dinner!”
NATO confirmed that the message came from Rutte and was sent Tuesday. It declined to provide more details, like what platform the secretary-general used to send the message.
The message appeared, from the style of font and screen icons present in Trump's posting, that it could be the encrypted messaging app Signal, where communications can be set to auto-delete, raising questions about the potential difficulties of retaining them as official records as part of presidential archives.
Signal was at the center of the scandal in which Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was accused of using the app, which is unapproved and unsecured, to share classified material about an upcoming U.S. airstrike in March on the Houthi rebel group in Yemen.
Trump vigorously defended Hegseth, even declaring, “I have no idea what Signal is. I don’t care what Signal is.” He also said, though, “I would frankly tell these people not to use Signal."
The White House said Tuesday that the message is authentic and was transmitted to Trump through staff on a government device — but would not speak to whether it was sent via Signal or another messaging app.
This isn't the first time a leader has sent to Trump a message that he then blasted out for all to see on social media.
Last week, Trump posted on his social media site a personal text message from Mike Huckabee, his U.S. ambassador to Israel, that referred to God while proclaiming that Trump was getting a lot of advice on Iranian policy but “there is only one voice that matters, HIS voice.”
“I believe you will hear from heaven," wrote Huckabee, who is also a Baptist minister "and that voice is far more important than mine or ANYONE else's.”
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Associated Press writers Darlene Superville in Washington and Lorne Cook in The Hague, Netherlands contributed to this report.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP