Marco Rubio Rebrands NATO Summit In Apparent Effort To Flatter His Boss

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio dubbed the NATO meeting underway in The Hague “the Trump summit,” touting President Donald Trump’s role in pressuring member states to increase their defense spending target.

In an interview with Politico’s Dasha Burns released Wednesday, Rubio said the move will strengthen the relationship between the U.S. and its allies in the military alliance.

“I would call this ‘the Trump summit,’” Rubio added.

“You’ve got his branding knack now,” Burns remarked.

“Well, I do,” he replied. “I guess it gets catchy.”

Rubio noted that in his first term in office, Trump shamed a number of countries that were spending less than the previous 2% target on defense.

His position “set in motion a series of events that pressured our European partners to spend more on defense,” he explained.

“The combination of pressure from President Trump in his first administration, and then a full invasion and war in Europe by Vladimir Putin has led now to virtually every country in — every single partner in the NATO alliance, pledging to get to that 5% mark, with the exception, unfortunately, of Spain,” Rubio continued.

Spain has reached an agreement with NATO to exclude itself from the 5% target, claiming that “its participation, weight and legitimacy” in the military alliance would still “remain intact.” The country said it doesn’t expect to face any blowback over this decision.

Rubio, though, said Spain’s stance amounted to a “big problem.”

“I don’t think that the agreement that Spain has reached is sustainable, and frankly it puts them in a very tough spot with regards to their other allies and partners,” he said.

Meanwhile, NATO chief Mark Rutte on Wednesday said the 5% target most member states have agreed to would make the military alliance “fairer,” in an apparent effort to appease Trump who was seated next to him.

“For too long, one ally, the United States, carried too much of the burden of that commitment,” Rutte said. “That changes today.”

“President Trump, dear Donald, you made that possible,” Rutte added.

Rutte had showered Trump with praise before the U.S. president even landed in the Netherlands, applauding Trump for the U.S. strikes on three Iranian nuclear sites over the weekend.

“Congratulations and thank you for your decisive action in Iran, that was truly extraordinary, and something no one else dared to do,” Rutte wrote to Trump. “It makes us all safer.”