Just hours after successfully bombing Iranian nuclear sites and announcing a ceasefire deal between Iran and Israel, President Donald Trump departed for the Netherlands to attend the annual NATO Summit.
Even before arriving in The Hague, Trump was receiving plenty of praise from NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte who applauded the president’s actions against Iran and was appreciative for the role he played in getting European nations to increase their defense spending. The latter is but the latest in a string of major foreign policy achievements for Trump this week.
On Wednesday’s show, Megyn was joined by Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA, to discuss Rutte’s words and the significance of the ‘wins’ the president is racking up at home and abroad.
On Iran
President Trump was hailed by Rutte during joint remarks at the 2025 NATO Summit on Wednesday as a “man of strength” and a “man of peace” for his military action against Iran’s nuclear facilities.
“I just want to recognize your decisive action on Iran,” Rutte said at the start of his joint remarks with the president. “You are a man of strength, but you are also a man of peace. And the fact that you are now also successful in getting this ceasefire done between Israel and Iran– I really want to commend you for that. I think this is important for the whole world.”
That public praise came after Trump posted private messages from Rutte that were similarly fawning on social media Tuesday. “Mr. President, dear Donald,” Rutte’s message began, as seen in a screenshot on Truth Social. “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.”
On NATO Spending
In the message, which NATO officials confirmed came from Rutte and was sent Tuesday via an unspecified messaging app, the secretary-general also told Trump he would be “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 in reference to other NATO member countries mostly signing onto a new pledge to spend 5 percent of their gross domestic product on defense – a demand Trump has been pushing for some time.
“Donald, you have driven us to a really, really important moment for America and Europe, and the world. You will achieve something NO American president in decades could get done,” Rutte continued. “Europe is going to pay in a BIG way, as they should, and it will be your win. Safe travels and see you at His Majesty’s dinner!”
The secretary-general had a similar message when addressing world leaders gathered at the summit on Wednesday. “For too long, one ally, the United States, carried too much of the burden of that commitment, and that changes today,” Rutte said. “President Trump, dear Donald, you made this change possible. Your leadership on this has already produced $1 trillion in extra spending from European allies since 2016, and the decisions today will produce trillions more for our common defense to make us stronger and fairer by equalizing spending between America and America’s allies.”
Trump’s Wins
Kirk said the reaction from Rutte is appropriate given all that Trump has accomplished in recent weeks. “This is not a coincidence that this [spending] announcement was made official right after President Donald Trump put on a masterclass in the Middle East the last two weeks,” he noted. “These world leaders know that you shouldn’t mess with Donald Trump; that when this guy says something, he absolutely means it; that he is calling the shots; that he wants the Western world to be strong, to be confident, to be well financed.”
The financial piece is something Kirk says a lot Trump’s critics get wrong. “For everyone that says he is trying to end NATO; actually, he is making NATO stronger… This is really good for Europe,” he explained. “[Barack] Obama tried to do this as well… He had in some of his official foreign policy documents going back to, like, 2010, ‘It’s time to try to get the Europeans to pay their fair share.’ But Obama did it in a typical State Department, bureaucratic [kind of way]… and then, next thing you know, it is 2015.”
“Donald Trump just goes into a meeting and he throws it down,” Kirk continued. “It is a good thing for a country and a series of countries to have a vested interest, and to have a stakeholder-type equity, and to have an incentive in your own defense… It’s a major victory.”
You can check out Megyn’s full interview with Kirk by tuning in to episode 1,095 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.