SPECULATION that US President Donald Trump may collapse the Nato war alliance continues following a White House meeting between him and its secretary-general Mark Rutte on Wednesday.

Details of their talks have not been shared, but Mr Rutte conceded that the US president was “clearly disappointed with many Nato allies,” adding “I can see his point.”

Mr Trump also made this clear, posting one of his characteristic all-capitalised messages on social media: “NATO WASN’T THERE WHEN WE NEEDED THEM, AND THEY WON’T BE THERE IF WE NEED THEM AGAIN.”

His anger reflects the US humiliation in Iran, and the refusal of Nato allies to treat the war he and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu began on February 28 as a defensive one where they would be required to come to the US’s aid. All declined to send warships to the Strait of Hormuz, and several including Spain, France, Italy and Austria closed their airspace to US forces engaged in the war.

Mr Rutte, a former Dutch prime minister once forced to resign over a scandal involving 26,000 people being wrongly accused of benefit fraud and forced to repay tens of thousands of euros in social security payments they were entitled to, claimed he and Mr Trump had had a “frank, open discussion” but one “between two good friends.”

He congratulated the US leader on the Iran war, and claimed the world was safer as a result of the conflict — continuing a record of embarrassing flattery that peaked with his reference to Mr Trump as “daddy” last year.