President Donald Trump hosted North Atlantic Treaty Organization Secretary-General Mark Rutte at the White House on Wednesday as his administration signaled growing frustration with Russia’s slow-walking of peace negotiations with Ukraine.
Rutte’s abruptly scheduled meeting with Trump comes as talks between the United States president, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky have stalled.
“Regarding Ukraine-Russia, we thought it would be a little bit easier. That’s turned out to be tougher than the Middle East. The Middle East was supposed to be the tough one, and we’ve solved that puzzle, but this one will get solved,” Trump, seated next to Rutte, told reporters in the Oval Office Wednesday evening.
“Many Russians were killed last week. Many Ukrainians were killed last week. We think it’s ridiculous, and we’d like to have it end,” he added later in his remarks. “At this point, it’s been, you know, it’s almost four years.”
Rutte, in turn, thanked Trump for defending Ukraine and pressuring NATO partners to increase their defense spending.
“All of this is evidence of your leadership, of pushing Europeans and the Canadians to do more to deliver and to equalize in spending with us,” he declared.
Things came to a head last week when Trump hosted Zelensky at the White House, and the president reportedly pressured Zelensky to concede Donetsk to Russia, a key area in Eastern Ukraine that Putin wants to control long-term.
A second summit between Trump and Putin in Budapest, Hungary, following the Trump-Putin meeting in Alaska in August, has been put on hold. A White House official confirmed to the Washington Examiner on Tuesday that it became clear on a call between Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, that a deal to end the war wasn’t forthcoming.
Trump himself told reporters that he canceled the meeting because “it just didn’t feel right.”
Zelensky has turned to European allies, Rutte included, for assistance in keeping Trump aligned with the rest of NATO on the talks.
On Wednesday, the U.S. took two clear steps to bolster Ukraine or at least signal its displeasure with Russia’s stalling on negotiations.
First, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent teased forthcoming sanctions against Russia ahead of Rutte’s visit.
“President Putin has not come to the table in an honest and forthright manner, as we’d hoped. There were talks in Alaska, President Trump walked away when he realized that things were not moving forward. There have been behind-the-scenes talks, but I believe that the president is disappointed at where we are in these talks,” Bessent said during an interview with Fox Business on Wednesday. “This will be one of the largest sanctions that we have done against the Russian Federation.”
The Treasury Department unveiled the sanctions package during Trump’s meeting with Rutte. The actions directly target Russia’s two largest oil companies, Open Joint Stock Company Rosneft Oil Company and Lukoil OAO, as well as dozens of subsidiary companies.
“As a result of today’s action, all property and interests in property of the designated or blocked persons described above that are in the United States or in the possession or control of U.S. persons are blocked and must be reported to OFAC,” the announcement reads.
“I just felt it was time. I waited a long time,” the president said of the timing of the sanctions package on Wednesday evening.
The Wall Street Journal also reported Wednesday afternoon that the Trump administration lifted limitations on Ukraine’s use of long-range missiles provided by the U.S. and other NATO allies to strike Russia directly.
However, Trump himself muddied that decision, claiming in a post on Truth Social that the Wall Street Journal’s story is “fake news.”
“The U.S. has nothing to do with those missiles, wherever they may come from, or what Ukraine does with them,” he wrote.
Trump later went on to tell reporters during the meeting with Rutte that the U.S. isn’t “selling any weapons to Ukraine.”
“We’re selling them to NATO, which is different from before, with Biden, he just gave $350 billion worth of weapons and cash right into Ukraine, and that was so foolish, but we sell them to NATO,” Trump said.
Rutte’s visit also comes the same day that the Senate Foreign Relations Committee unanimously passed three pieces of legislation, including the STOP Russia and China Act of 2025, a bill amending the Rebuilding Economic Prosperity and Opportunity for Ukrainians Act to repurpose frozen Russian assets and transfer them to Ukraine every 90 days, and another bill designating the Russian Federation as a state sponsor of terrorism over kidnapping Ukrainian children.
“We look forward to getting them to the floor soon so that we can join the Europeans as they look at using the repossessed assets in Ukraine and … join hands and do everything we can to support Ukraine,” said Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), ranking member of the committee, who held a press conference with Rutte, U.S. Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker, and Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) on Capitol Hill before meeting with Trump.
Shaheen expressed some confusion about Tuesday’s abrupt cancellation of the Trump-Putin meeting. “I think it’s not clear. I think it was a good thing, because clearly Putin is continuing to play Trump and play for time, but it’s not clear what the motivation was on the part of the White House,” she told the Washington Examiner.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) also told the Washington Examiner that he believes the legislation targeting Russia will get a full vote before the Senate. “I know that the chairman supports it,” he added, speaking of Chairman Jim Risch (R-ID). “And the ranking member supports it, and I believe the majority of the committee supports it, so I think its chances are pretty good.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), a key Trump ally, added: “We’ve been working with the White House. Think we’re in a good spot in terms of how the bill works.”
Trump, according to Graham, is “the quarterback.”
“Under the bill, he sets the tariffs. He can change them based on his discretion. But Europe hasn’t embraced the idea of hitting Russia’s customers,” he continued.
Rutte discussed NATO’s continued support for Ukraine and ceasefire negotiations with the president on Wednesday afternoon.
“We will dialog this afternoon further, and I’m there to help him to deliver whatever NATO can do,” Rutte told reporters. “Me personally, the ambassador, all of us can do to help him to deliver on that vision.”
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“And clearly, going forward, I cannot now predict exactly what type of meetings in what type of setting will happen,” he continued. “But it will mean a lot of discussions with all the leaders involved, including the presidents of Russia and Ukraine. No doubt.”
You can watch Trump’s comments in full below.