King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima will spend tonight at the White House as guests of Donald Trump, with Prime Minister Rob Jetten joining for a private dinner — and more than half of the Dutch public supports the visit, despite widespread unease about the current US administration.
The overnight stay is far from routine. According to America correspondent Erik Mouthaan, White House bedrooms are normally reserved for the president’s personal friends.
The arrangement follows diplomatic convention, though: Trump stayed at Huis ten Bosch during last June’s NATO summit in The Hague, and the principle of reciprocity applies, even if, as Mouthaan put it to RTL Nieuws, “Trump only abides by rules when he wants to.”
A tense backdrop
The visit lands at a particularly fraught moment. Trump recently posted on Truth Social that NATO “was not there when we needed them” and last week made an extraordinary threat about the Strait of Hormuz that drew sharp criticism in The Hague.
Left-wing opposition parties have been vocal in their opposition to the trip. RTL’s political reporter Fons Lambie notes, however, that “a large majority of the House” supports it.
What the Dutch actually think
A survey by the RTL News Panel — conducted April 9 and 10 among more than 17,000 respondents — found that 51% of Dutch people are positive about the visit, primarily because they believe maintaining ties with Washington matters right now.
Some 38% are opposed, feeling the Trump administration doesn’t merit Dutch goodwill at this stage.
RTL opinion pollster Gijs Rademaker called it “a devilish dilemma” for many. Most Dutch people view Trump’s administration negatively, but the consensus is that cancelling the invitation would cause more damage than going.
Interestingly, Dutch support outpaces British enthusiasm for a comparable visit: around 42% of Britons back King Charles’ upcoming trip to Washington, according to a YouGov poll for The Times.
The dinner itself
The evening is billed as private, but as Mouthaan noted, Trump is the host and sets the agenda. Political topics are firmly on the table, whether the royal couple want them there or not.
A slim majority of respondents (54%) want Jetten to raise the Netherlands’ position on sensitive issues, but carefully, and not in a way that risks a public falling-out.
The memory of Trump’s televised confrontation with Zelensky, which spawned its own Dutch parody, is fresh.
So too is the Pearl Harbor incident, in which Trump made a pointed remark to Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi about her country’s World War II attack on the US naval base while she sat next to him.
Rademaker summed up the Dutch public’s preferred approach: subtlety within rooms, not a standoff on camera.
For Jetten, who has only been prime minister since February, it’s an unusually fast audience with the US president.
The groundwork, at least, has been laid: his past comments about Trump being a “convicted criminal” and “misogynist” were apparently ironed out in advance with the US ambassador to the Netherlands.
Do you think the Dutch royals should keep politics out of tonight’s dinner — or is this Jetten’s moment to speak up? Let us know in the comments.
I live in the usa, and an Dutch, but no. It is time the world grows a spine against the insanity ….