Matthew Whitaker, the U.S. permanent representative to NATO, told Newsmax on Thursday that President Donald Trump was widely popular during the military alliance’s annual summit Wednesday at The Hague.
“I was again right there with him the entire time, and every single world leader from all 31 other NATO countries just wanted a handshake, just wanted a minute, a pull-aside, a chance to talk to him,” Whitaker, who was acting attorney general in Trump’s first administration, told “Finnerty.” “And it’s really quite extraordinary.”
In fact, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte referred to Trump as “daddy” when he and the president were talking about the Israel-Iran conflict and Trump’s harsh words against both nations before he brokered a ceasefire agreement that began Tuesday. “And daddy sometimes has to use strong language,” Rutte said, referring to Trump dropping the f-bomb while boarding Marine One on his way to the summit.
“Donald Trump is the adult in the room,” Whitaker said. “He is the leader of the free world, and he is the president of the most powerful country on the globe. And so when you take all that, you see that only Donald Trump was able to get to 5%.”
Whitaker was referring to Trump’s getting the alliance’s other 30 members — Iceland is exempt because it doesn’t have a military — to agree to spend at least 5% of their gross domestic product on defense. Even though NATO had a baseline of 2% set during a 2014 summit in Wales, eight countries, including Canada and Spain, had not yet reached that baseline as of 2024, according to NATO data.
“This is a huge, monumental win for the American people,” Whitaker said. “And President Trump has delivered on the world stage.”
Whitaker scoffed at a New York Times report Wednesday that the other NATO members will not live up to the 5% pledge and that Trump didn’t spend enough time on Ukraine, calling it “fake news.” Trump met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for 50 minutes on the sidelines of the summit.
“I was in the meeting with Zelenskyy regarding Ukraine,” Whitaker said. “But most importantly, countries are spending. You know, we see Poland that’s almost at 5% right now. We see Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, all within years of getting to 5%. And we see some of the big countries — Germany, France, Great Britain — all having plans to incrementally make steps to get a lot stronger.
“And that strength, first of all, is going to allow for peace. But more importantly, it’s going to free up the American armed forces to pivot to what they need to handle globally.”
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