Secretary of State Marco Rubio traveled to Brussels on Thursday for a gathering of NATO foreign ministers amid high anxiety over the Trump administration’s approach to Europe, including the war in Ukraine, relations with Russia and President Donald Trump’s growing trade war with the continent.

Rubio’s visit to the alliance’s headquarters, the first by a senior Trump administration official this year, comes as relations between the United States and Europe have abruptly shifted from the close cooperation of the Biden era to mistrust and acrimony under Trump.

NATO Officials Welcome Chance to Speak With Rubio

At the same time, NATO officials may welcome a chance to confer with Rubio, whom many consider the most pro-alliance member of Trump’s national security team.

As a senator in 2023, representing Florida, Rubio co-sponsored legislation requiring any president to seek the Senate’s advice and consent before withdrawing from the organization. Former aides say Trump has privately mused about taking that step, which would shatter the 32-nation military alliance formed to counter Russia.

Foreign officials who have dealt with Rubio since he became Trump’s top diplomat have described him as downplaying some of Trump’s wilder ideas and translating them into more realistic policy approaches, although they also question whether he truly speaks for a president with whom he does not have a close personal relationship.

And there is only so much Rubio can do to sugarcoat Trump’s agenda, which is driven by a view that Europe economically exploits the United States, is culturally out of sync with the values of Trump’s political movement and must do business with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Rubio also arrives just a day after Trump announced 20% tariffs on imports from the European Union. At the White House on Wednesday, Trump said of the EU: “They rip us off. It’s so sad to see. It’s so pathetic.”

Rubio Expected to Press Trump’s Calls for Ukraine War Ending

In meetings with NATO ministers, Rubio is expected to press Trump’s call for a swift end to the war in Ukraine, an approach that alarms many European leaders who overwhelmingly support Ukraine and fear that Trump will wind up appeasing Putin.

Rubio’s fellow ministers will do their best to shape the Trump administration’s efforts to broker a deal between Ukraine and Russia, which have stalled over wide gaps between the warring parties, and to urge the United States not to abandon Ukraine.

Rubio is also likely to reiterate Trump’s demand that NATO countries increase their military spending to 5% of their gross domestic product, even as many of them struggle to meet spending goals of 2% that the alliance set years ago. Trump and other top American officials believe that the alliance relies too heavily on the United States for protection.

That was made painfully clear to European officials by a discussion among top Trump administration officials last month on the Signal app that unwittingly included a journalist, Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic magazine. During the text chain, about a U.S. plan to bomb Houthi militants in Yemen, Vice President JD Vance complained that America would “again” be “bailing out” Europe by taking unilateral action to protect international shipping lanes that the Houthis have attacked.

“I fully share your loathing of European freeloading,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth responded. “It’s PATHETIC.”

Trump Warns NATO Countries

Trump himself has warned that he may not come to the defense of NATO countries that he feels are not spending enough on their militaries, despite the alliance’s commitment to mutual defense. “If they don’t pay, I’m not going to defend them,” the president told reporters last month.

An additional point of tension is Trump’s determination to acquire the island of Greenland, which is an autonomous territory of Denmark, a NATO member. Trump has shocked officials from Denmark and other NATO countries by declining to rule out taking Greenland by force, although Vance said on a recent visit to the island that military action was not under consideration.

Denmark’s foreign minister will attend the gathering in Brussels, although it is unclear whether he and Rubio will discuss Greenland. Danish officials say they cannot negotiate Greenland’s fate on their own because the island has the right of self-determination.

Rubio will be joined in Brussels by the new U.S. ambassador to NATO, Matt Whitaker, whom the Senate narrowly confirmed Tuesday.

NATO officials are unsure what to make of Whitaker, who briefly served as acting attorney general during Trump’s first term but has no foreign policy experience. During his confirmation hearing, Whitaker assured senators that the United States’ commitment to NATO was “ironclad.”

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Michael Crowley/Maansi Srivastava
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