FACT CHECK: Did the Secretary General of NATO Threaten To Expel the United States?

A post on X claims that Secretary General of the North American Treaty Organization (NATO) Mark Rutte said he will expel the U.S. from the organization if President-Elect Trump “surrenders Ukraine to Putin.”

#NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said :” if Trump surrenders Ukraine to Putin, I will personally kick the #US out of the alliance.” ‼️‼️🤡 the circus 🎪 is on pic.twitter.com/noeQaLFWKR

— Brunella C. (@BrunellaCapitan) November 10, 2024

Verdict: False

There is no evidence that he ever made this claim or NATO is moving to expel the U.S.

Fact Check:

Former President Donald Trump promised he would bring an end to the war in Ukraine “in a day” if elected. Trump spoke with Vladimir Putin by phone two days after the election, and urged the Russian President to not escalate military activity while also reminding him of U.S. troops stationed in Europe.

A post on X claims that Mark Rutte, the Secretary General of NATO, has threatened to kick the United States out of the alliance if Trump withholds even more aid money. Implying that “ending the war” means handing victory to Russia, the post claims that Rutte will personally expel” the U.S. out of NATO over this.

This quote is not real, however. There is no proof that Rutte has ever said or implied that he would expel the U.S. from NATO, and Rutte congratulated the incoming President on his victory in a post on X just two days after Election Day. (RELATED: Elon Musk Didn’t Post ‘Last Dollar’ For Zelenskyy)

I spoke with @realDonaldTrump to personally congratulate him on his remarkable election victory. I look forward to seeing him soon. We will work together to tackle the many security challenges we face.

— Mark Rutte (@SecGenNATO) November 7, 2024

A search for any information about this supposed quote turned up empty. There is no mention of it on NATO’s official X account nor their website. Furthermore, NATO has no mechanisms in place to expel member countries.

President-Elect Trump has made no indications that he plans to force the Ukraine to surrender, and however he did not tell Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy about his phone call with Putin.

According to Newsweek, the fake quote gained traction on Telegram via accounts that are known to be pro-Kremlin.