Very sadly, Rutte is not anywhere near a position to ignore Trump. And pushing back currently comes with a much higher risk than sucking up. I think Rutte is playing a short term game because in the long term Trump is too unpredictable anyway. I think Rutte just wants to make sure that Trump leaves this meeting feeling that “NATO likes Donald, NATO good” so that he doesn’t do anything drastic. Tomorrow he will probably focus on something different anyway. Golf, tariffs, Canada, Biden - who knows?

It’s just a strategy for dealing with an ego in need of constant external reinforcement and validation. Absolutely embarrassing but it probably works.