NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte tried to curry favor with US President Donald Trump. All the other major member states also more or less courted Trump in 2025. He receives them at the White House with much fanfare,

If Putin is “prepared to sacrifice ordinary Russians in this way, what is he prepared to do to us?” the NATO chief said.

Former Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billström said after the Ukraine war, Europe must be ready for further Russian aggression.

The Trump administration sent shockwaves across the Atlantic last week with its new National Security Strategy. The strategy’s dismissal of the threat from Russia and harsh criticisms of Europe and NATO led the German chancellor to describe elements of the strategy as “unacceptable,

Ukraine has relinquished its ambition of joining the NATO military alliance in exchange for Western security guarantees as a compromise to end the war with Russia, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said ahead of talks with U.S. envoys in Berlin.

The US has given Europe until 2027 to take over the decisive bulk of NATO’s conventional defense capabilities, ranging from intelligence to missiles, Reuters reported on Friday, citing people it didn’t name.

U.S. officials reportedly said that they remain unsatisfied with the progress allies are making when it comes to bolstering their own capabilities.

Leo XIV warned that Trump's disparaging remarks about Europe and NATO could fracture the longstanding US-Europe alliance that he considers vital "today and in the future."