Mark Rutte, NATO Secretary-General, met President Donald Trump at the White House on June 24 to discuss alliance matters ahead of a July NATO summit in Ankara. The meeting occurred four months after a February 28 U.S.-Israeli strike on Iran that disrupted the Strait of Hormuz and involved U.S. aircraft operations from European bases. Rutte noted post-2017 European defense spending increases while Trump has previously described NATO as a paper tiger.