No, NATO leader didn’t threaten to expel US | Fact check

A Nov. 10 Threads post (direct link, archive link) shows a picture of North Atlantic Treaty Organization Secretary General Mark Rutte.
“Breaking,” reads the post’s caption. “NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte says that ‘If Trump surrenders Ukraine to Putin, he will personally expel the United States from the alliance.'”
The post garnered more than 100 likes in two days. Other versions of the claim were shared on Facebook and X, formerly Twitter.
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A NATO spokesperson said the claim is false. The secretary general congratulated President-elect Donald Trump in a public statement and said he looks forward to working with him.
The future of U.S. aid to Ukraine has become uncertain after Trump’s election win on Nov. 5. In the past, Trump has vaguely said he would quickly end the war in Ukraine, praised Russian President Vladimir Putin on several occasions and criticized the scale of U.S. aid to Ukraine.
But Daniele Riggio, a NATO spokesperson, said the organization’s secretary general never threatened to expel the U.S., calling the claim about Rutte’s supposed statement “baseless.”
Rutte spoke positively about Trump after the election, congratulating him in a Nov. 6 statement.
“I look forward to working with him again to advance peace through strength through NATO,” part of the statement reads. “When President-elect Trump takes office again on January 20, he will be welcomed by a stronger, larger and more united alliance.”
He also said in a Nov. 7 X post that he personally congratulated Trump “on his remarkable election victory.”
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He expressed similar support for Trump in a Nov. 7statement.
“I worked very well with him for four years,” Rutte said. “He is extremely clear about what he wants. He understands that you have to deal with each other to come to joint positions. And I think we can do that.”
There are no credible news reports about Rutte threatening to expel the U.S. from NATO.
USA TODAY reached out to the user who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
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