President Donald Trump has long expressed skepticism regarding the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and previously suggested withdrawing from the alliance.

While the skepticism is shared by some members of Trump's MAGA base, that didn't stop him from being praised by a NATO official after posing for pictures. 

Trump has had a tense relationship with some NATO leaders

According to Breitbart, was photographed at the annual NATO Summit in the Netherlands on Tuesday alongside other heads of state.

President Trump participates in the family photo at the NATO Summit in The Hague, Netherlands. pic.twitter.com/YcMTUlB6Jm

— CSPAN (@cspan) June 24, 2025

They included French President Emannuel Macron and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney as well as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, despite his country not being a NATO member.

Trump has had a contentious relationship with all three figures, recently accusing Macron of being someone who "always gets it wrong."

NATO secretary general thanks Trump for getting "Europe to truly step up"

Meanwhile, the U.S. president has repeatedly raised the prospect of annexing Canada and famously butted heads with Zelensky when the Ukrainian leader visited the White House earlier this year.

Nevertheless, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte expressed gratitude to Trump for having demanded that member nations meet their defense spending commitments.

"For decades, the United States sought to get Europe to truly step up. Now, European allies and Canada will equalize their defense spending with the United States," Breitbart quoted Rutte as saying.

"So let me salute President Trump’s long-standing leadership in calling for NATO to increase defense spending," the NATO secretary general added.

Trump threatens Spain with tariffs over insufficient defense spending

Breitbart also reported that at one point during the event, Trump threatened Spain's left-wing government with higher taxes if it did not boost defense spending levels.

"I think Spain are terrible, what they’ve done. They are the only country who won’t pay… they want to stay at two per cent," the president told reporters at a press conference.

"I think it’s terrible, and you know they’re doing very well, the economy is going very well. And that economy could be blown right out of the water with something bad happening… you’re the only country that’s not paying, I don’t know what the problem is," he continued.

"We’re negotiating with Spain on a trade deal, we’re going to make them pay twice as much. And I’m actually serious about that," Trump added.