Secretary General Mark Rutte on Trump, Europe, and the future of NATO

In the premiere episode of Inflection Points with Frederick Kempe, Atlantic Council President and CEO Frederick Kempe sits down with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in Washington. Their conversation follows Rutte’s meetings with President Donald Trump at the White House and leaders on Capitol Hill, with less than two weeks to go until the NATO summit in Ankara. Rutte, who became NATO secretary general in October 2024 after serving fourteen years as prime minister of the Netherlands, is leading the Alliance at one of the most consequential and dangerous moments in its 77-year history. Kempe and Rutte discuss the historic importance of the Ankara summit, why NATO needs a defense industrial revolution, and how the Alliance can navigate transatlantic tensions amid a fragile peace in Iran, Russia’s war in Ukraine, and growing geopolitical uncertainty.