The "Dear Donald" note praised Trump for "decisive action" in Iran and pushing NATO nations to spend more on defense.
THE HAGUE, Netherlands - If European leaders are miffed at President Donald Trump's attacks on Iran, do not expect to see any public criticism - at least until the close of the NATO summit Wednesday when his plane is headed safely back across the Atlantic.
Trump may have embarrassed European leaders by claiming Iran was not interested in speaking to them and only wanted to speak to Trump - about the same time as Iranian officials were actually meeting with European negotiators in Geneva.
He may have irritated allies by striking Iran's nuclear facilities over the weekend without consulting them and giving them the briefest of notice before bombs started falling.
But right now, the focus of the other 31 members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is to get through this week's abbreviated annual summit with minimal disruption from the notoriously anti-NATO American president, participants and observers at the meeting said.
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, in fact, on Tuesday illustrated the effort to manage Trump using lessons learned from dealing with him over the four years of his first term and the first months of his second: lay on the praise and flattery and make clear that he is a winner.
"Congratulations and thank you for your decisive action in Iran, that was truly extraordinary, and something no one else dared to do. It makes us all safer," Rutte wrote to Trump in a text message as the U.S. president began his journey to The Hague on Air Force One. Trump immediately posted screenshots of the message on social media.
Rutte went on to tell Trump he had already achieved his goal to get other NATO members to spend more on defense. "You are flying into another big success in The Hague this evening. It was not easy but we've got them all signed onto 5 percent!" Rutte wrote. "Europe is going to pay in a BIG way, as they should, and it will be your win."
Trump has many times made clear his transactional approach to life, including international relations. He has even explained that he likes Russian dictator Vladimir Putin because Putin has said that he likes Trump. Foreign leaders visiting the White House have made lavish praise of Trump a standard fixture in their public remarks, and the corollary strategy of not openly criticizing him appears to be at least partially behind recent statements about his strike against Iran.
"There is no reason for us, or for me personally, to criticize what Israel started a week ago, nor is there any reason to criticize what America did last weekend," German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Monday.
Soon after the strikes, France released a statement saying it had "taken note with concern," but hours later joined with Germany and the United Kingdom to affirm: "We have consistently been clear that Iran can never have a nuclear weapon and can no longer pose a threat to regional security."
And Rutte, shortly after his note to Trump, had, unprompted, praised him at a public forum for opening a channel with Putin about a ceasefire with Ukraine: "I want to commend President Trump for breaking the deadlock. When he came into office, he started dialog with President Putin, and I always thought that was crucial, and there's only one leader who could break the deadlock originally, and that had to be the American president, because he is the most powerful leader in the world, and leading 25% of the world's GDP, and the mightiest and most powerful military in the world."
Others pointed out that European leaders also truly do not want Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon and that, in any event, they are no longer significant players in the region.
"I think the Europeans have long gotten used to the fact that they are no factor in Middle East politics any longer," said Jan Techau, a Berlin-based analyst for the Center for European Policy Analysis. "Also, criticizing Trump ahead of the NATO summit was a no-go. The primary goal is to make this an accident-free summit. Don't enrage Trump. So everyone kept quiet."
One of Trump's former national security advisers from his first term cautioned NATO leaders that playing to Trump's vanity, while a good strategy, does not guarantee success.
"Flattery works, but not necessarily always," John Bolton said. "I mean, distracting his attention might work. They need to be creative."
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