NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte will sit down with President Donald Trump at the White House on Wednesday, the alliance announced Friday, part of a three-day Washington visit aimed at steadying a relationship strained by U.S. moves to scale back its military commitments to European allies.

The trip, running Tuesday to Thursday, lands one week after Secretary of War Pete Hegseth used a Brussels ministerial to brand NATO a "paper tiger" and launch a six-month Pentagon review of U.S. force posture in Europe.

Hegseth told allied defense ministers the review would push the alliance "fast and irreversibly toward Europe leading," though he stopped short of committing to a troop drawdown.

Rutte will also meet senior administration officials during the visit and join an E5 leaders' meeting virtually from Washington, according to NATO.

On Thursday, he is set to see members of Congress and headline a discussion at the Atlantic Council.

The agenda is shadowed by a clear shift in U.S. posture.

Earlier this month, Washington informed European allies that it would reduce the number of fighter jets and warships it would commit to NATO's early-stage response in a conflict, The New York Times first reported.

The administration also moved to trim about 5,000 U.S. troops from each of Poland and Germany before reversing course on Poland after bipartisan pushback.

Trump's frustration sharpened during the recent U.S. war with Iran.

Several European NATO members declined to open their bases or airspace to U.S. aircraft bound for the Middle East, and the alliance offered no joint military response when Tehran closed the Strait of Hormuz.

Trump first deployed the "paper tiger" line against NATO in March over that standoff, and Hegseth picked it up at the ministerial.

Money is the other pressure point.

At the Hague summit last year, allies committed to spend 5% of GDP on defense, a target Trump has pushed them to hit faster.

Hegseth, addressing ministers alongside Rutte, warned that future U.S. funding and basing decisions would be tied to whether allies meet the pledge.

After Hegseth's speech, Rutte told reporters there was "broad agreement among allies on the need to step up" and called the U.S. position "completely acceptable."

Wednesday's Oval Office sit-down will test whether that flattery-and-realism playbook, which Rutte used in April to keep Trump engaged with the alliance, can survive the next phase of the U.S. pullback.