The morning after striking a deal with Donald Trump over Greenland that appeared to have eased the biggest crisis in transatlantic relations for decades, Mark Rutte was revelling in his now gold-plated reputation as Europe’s ultimate Trump whisperer.
“The president and I agreed to implement his vision — which I think is spot on,” the Nato secretary-general said on the sidelines of a breakfast event in Davos, where he was strikingly ebullient, even by his own famously breezy standards. “We had a very good discussion.”
Rutte’s private conversation with Trump not only saw the US president withdraw his threat to impose tariffs on Europeans and ease his rhetoric about conquering Greenland, but it appeared to come at a very low price: a promise to open talks on the future US presence on the Arctic island.
A dozen friends, colleagues and former political allies and rivals of the former Dutch prime minister tell the FT that the feat was classic Rutte: a compromise built on personal connection and a laser focus on finding an outcome — lubricated by lavish praise for Trump that has often bordered on sycophancy.
“Fourteen years of leading Dutch coalition politics made him very good at finding compromises and making deals. And he seems unfazed by whatever crisis he has to deal with,” says Ernst Dijxhoorn, assistant professor at Leiden University.
Rutte “has understood better than anyone else the submarine principle when dealing with Trump”, says one European diplomat who has worked closely with him. “You stay below the surface, don’t make waves, and surface only when you absolutely need to, to get something done.”
After leading the Netherlands from 2010 to 2024, Rutte’s political dexterity and his already good rapport with Trump made him the overwhelming choice to lead Nato through what the military alliance’s European members knew could be a deeply difficult period should the Maga leader return to power.
Since taking the helm in October 2024, he has made “Trump-handling” his principal focus, leaning heavily on his ability to establish close ties with his interlocutors. One former Nato prime minister who shared private summits and meetings with Rutte described him as “warm, meticulous and an incredible relationship-builder”.
Rutte never fails to respond to texts messages from politicians within five minutes, and routinely follows up on reading suggestions, advice and ideas. A life-long bachelor, he works around the clock, often inviting other European leaders to dinner in The Hague to discuss issues in an informal setting.
The youngest of seven children, the 58-year-old was born and raised in the Dutch administrative capital, and worked as an HR manager for Unilever before entering politics. His down-to-earth political image, friends say, is genuine: as prime minister, he would cycle to work and taught a weekly social sciences class at a local high school.
Two people who negotiated with and against Rutte as prime minister say he would always deploy “industrial-grade charm” to force a deal. “Flattery, loyalty to the max and efforts behind the scenes to bring everyone on board,” says one.
That trait was on display when Rutte infamously referred to Trump as “Daddy” in a televised discussion at the Nato summit in The Hague last summer, where Trump was demanding European states vastly increase defence spending. He also sent a text message to Trump — later published online by the US president — that read: “Europe is going to pay in a BIG way, as they should, and it will be your win.” Rutte’s gushing praise drew widespread mockery and made many alliance officials uncomfortable, but people close to him say he didn’t care about the backlash — the gambit worked.
“There was a lot of criticism of the ‘Daddy’ quotes,” says the former EU leader, “but in his mind it was like, ‘Yeah, who cares? I got this thing done.’”
“He delves deep into what makes the other tick, and then bases his actions on that,” says Robert de Groot, who was Rutte’s ambassador to the EU when he was prime minister.
“As Nato secretary-general, his preoccupation is to keep everyone in the wheelbarrow, which is not easy,” adds de Groot, who is now vice-president of the European Investment Bank. “If Rutte has to flatter to get a result of which everyone says, ‘Thank god this went well,’ then he’ll do that.”
As Dutch prime minister, he led four different coalitions, almost all of which were unstable, fractious and required constant management. He found ways to make his centrist VVD work with parties from across the spectrum. His first coalition relied on a controversial confidence and supply deal with Geert Wilders’ far-right nationalist PVV, demonstrating his ability to put pragmatism over ideology. “If you are looking for vision,” he famously quipped, “you’d better visit an optician.”
“He was able to work with everyone,” said de Groot, citing Hungary’s Eurosceptic leader Viktor Orbán, Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and French President Emmanuel Macron.
“I’m not popular with you now because I’m defending Donald Trump, but I really believe you can be happy that he is there,” Rutte told a Davos audience on Wednesday before his meeting with the US president. “He has forced us in Europe to step up . . . Without Donald Trump, this would never have happened.”
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