Reporter Straight Up Asks NATO Head If Praising Trump Is Impacting His ‘Self-Respect’
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"Does this have any effect on your self-respect when you sit like that and say nothing?” a Danish reporter asked the NATO head The post Reporter Straight Up Asks NATO Head If Praising Trump Is Impacting His ‘Self-Respect’ first appeared on Mediaite.
A Danish reporter pulled no punches on Wednesday in grilling NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte over his willingness to praise President Donald Trump in public settings, asking if doing so was taking a toll on his “self-respect.”
“Rasmus Svaneborg from the Danish news agency Ritzau,” began the reporter introducing himself at the presser.
“Mark, you sit next to Donald Trump in moments when he talks about conquering Greenland, talks about lashing out at allies like Spain, starting trade wars, things that it doesn’t seem like the old Mark Rutte would approve of. Does this have any effect on your self-respect when you sit like that and say nothing?” asked Svaneborg bluntly.
“You know, what I always do is acknowledge when praise is due, and I think we should praise Donald Trump for the fact that NATO is so much stronger. Of course, it has to do with the Russian threat, it has to do with the war in Ukraine, but it very much also has to do with President Trump delivering now what, since Eisenhower, the United States tried to achieve: equalizing spending between the US and Europe. And it makes Europe stronger,” replied Rutte, adding:
It makes Europe more relevant for the United States as a partner. So that is the transformative character of this summit, what happened in The Hague, the implementation since The Hague, this summit as a point in time where we take stock, and I think that is extremely important.
And when it comes to Greenland, I already explained: we had a meeting in Davos, and I said, “I agree with you when it comes to Russia, when it comes to China gaining access to the High North, but let’s do this together. We have NATO for this, let’s work together on this.” This is exactly what we are doing. Okay, we have very little time.
Rutte, a former prime minister of the Netherlands, has found himself caught between Trump’s attacks on NATO and very public claims of wanting to take Greenland from Denmark, while also needing to hold the NATO alliance together with U.S. support. Trump’s ongoing threats of acquiring Denmark have made the U.S. president deeply unpopular in Denmark and in other European countries concerned about their security.
Watch the clip above.
The post Reporter Straight Up Asks NATO Head If Praising Trump Is Impacting His ‘Self-Respect’ first appeared on Mediaite.