The Netherlands and the US have a long and closely intertwined history. In fact, it goes all the way back to the very beginning of the United States’ independence.
But what about now? And how did it start? Let’s take a history dive, shall we?
America and the Netherlands: We’re old mates!
The relationship began almost as soon as the United States was formed: as early as 1782, John Adams, one of the Founding Fathers, travelled to The Hague on a diplomatic mission.
The Netherlands became the second country, after France, to recognise the new nation (though a Dutch governor had already recognised the US without consent from the government).
Adams then purchased a house in The Hague, which became the first American embassy in the world and stands to this day.
However, in 2018 the US embassy moved to a brand-spanking-new location:
By the dawn's early light, the U.S. Marine Security Guards raised our flag over #JohnAdamsPark1, our new Embassy in Wassenaar, for the first time. pic.twitter.com/JMHohUfwbj
— U.S. Embassy The Hague (@usembthehague) January 29, 2018
The Dutch got your back!
During the Second World War, the Dutch government-in-exile was at war in Europe. At the time, the Dutch also controlled the East Indies colony, which was rich in resources like oil and rubber.
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The Japanese empire wished to secure this supply and sought to invade the East Indies. And as tensions rose, the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, was a tipping point.
The Dutch declared war on Japan the very next day — even before the US did (according to reports, the Dutch government in London actually sent the proclamation of war before the news of the attack reached them).
Freedom!
More than 150 years after the Dutch recognised American independence, the US took the opportunity to return the favour.
Although it was the Canadian army that liberated the biggest parts of the country by May 5, 1945, the US played a key role in the liberation and eventual victory of the Allied forces.
READ MORE | Amsterdam liberated: the infamous shooting at Dam Square on May 7, 1945
However, this was only the beginning of American support for the Dutch.
After the war
Once the war was over, the US continued to support the Netherlands through the Marshall Plan.
Officially known as the European Recovery Program, it was named after its originator, Secretary of State George Marshall.
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The plan provided billions of dollars in economic assistance to countries in Western Europe. The motive was to set up and preserve institutions of free trade and liberal democracy.
As a consequence, the US and the Netherlands still share a similar outlook and value system in politics and economics.
Economy
Currently, the two countries are close partners in trade and policy. The US is the largest foreign investor in the Netherlands, and the Netherlands is the third-largest foreign investor in the US.
The Dutch have also supported NATO’s war efforts in Korea, the Middle East, and the Balkans. With Brexit, the Netherlands is now perhaps the most transatlantic-leaning member of the EU.
However, the two countries have, of course, also had some sharp divergences.
The Hague hosted NATO — and a Dutchman ran the show
Fast forward to 2025, and the friendship got a very public stage. In June, The Hague hosted the NATO summit, the first time the Netherlands has ever thrown the alliance’s biggest party.
It wasn’t only a logistical flex. The headline result was a pledge by nearly every member (Spain wangled an exemption) to spend 5% of GDP on defence by 2035. That splits into 3.5% on core military needs and 1.5% on related bits like infrastructure and cyber defence.
Trump, never one to undersell a moment, called it a “historic achievement,” while NATO chief Mark Rutte went with “transformational leap.”
And here’s the twist for a Dutch-American story. The man steering the whole thing is Mark Rutte, the former Dutch prime minister who now runs NATO as its Secretary-General.
So a Dutchman welcomed the American president onto Dutch soil, having already spent months perfecting the delicate art of managing him. Buddies indeed.
Surprise! We have differences too
Sure, talking about American-Dutch relations, there have been some bones of contention along the way, most prominently the tolerant Dutch attitude towards soft drugs as opposed to the hard-line sometimes taken by the US.
The winds of political change under Trump created further discord, with the Dutch for example remaining strong supporters of the pro-choice movement on the international stage while American policy shifted to a pro-life focus.
We have to mention Pete Hoekstra
Back in 2018, the appointment of Pete Hoekstra as Dutch ambassador really brought American-Dutch relations into focus.
The Trump administration had sharply diverged from the long-term American Netherlands policy, which soured relations between the two countries for a while.
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This was exemplified by the now infamous exchange between Hoekstra and Dutch journalists, during which they confronted him about his claims of supposed fire and fury (pun intended) in Muslim-dominated areas in the Netherlands.
One journalist, in particular, offered Hoekstra a piquant reminder of the power of a free press by saying — “This is the Netherlands, you have to answer questions.”
A more recent sore point: the Nexperia saga
The old soft-drugs disagreement looks almost quaint next to what happened in late 2025.
Nexperia is a chipmaker based in Nijmegen but owned by China’s Wingtech. When Washington extended its trade blacklist to cover Chinese-owned firms and their affiliates, the Dutch government invoked a Cold War-era law to seize temporary control of the company.
According to CNN, American officials had signalled that Nexperia’s Chinese CEO would likely need to go if the firm wanted off the US list.
Beijing wasn’t amused. It hit back with export controls, briefly sending the global car industry into a chip-supply panic.
It’s an uncomfortable snapshot of the modern friendship — the Netherlands increasingly stuck between its old American ally and its biggest trading rival.
Where do we go from here?
Warmly or frostily? Honestly, it depends on the week.
Trump’s second term has come with tariffs. The EU and US settled on 15% duties on most European goods in 2025, and Dutch exports to the US have slipped since, down almost 5% over the first ten months of the year, as DutchReview has been tracking.
And the threats haven’t stopped: in September 2026, Trump warned of “very serious tariffs” on the EU, or cutting off trade with the bloc entirely, if it lets Canada become its first associate member, CNBC reported.
The share of Dutch people who see the US as a reliable partner has fallen off a cliff, from 88% in 2022 to just 41% by spring 2026, according to Pew Research Center.
A separate poll by the Netherlands Atlantic Association found more than eight in ten no longer count on unconditional American backing. Not quite the buddy energy the friendship started with.
There are new faces on both sides. The current US ambassador in The Hague is Joseph Popolo Jr., a businessman and Trump donor who took up the post in October 2025.
His predecessor in the role, Pete Hoekstra, star of that 2018 press-conference showdown, didn’t exactly leave the diplomatic stage. Trump sent him north to serve as US ambassador to Canada instead.
It’s going about as smoothly as the tariffs. A petition to declare Hoekstra persona non grata and have him removed from the country has climbed past 170,000 signatures and is still growing, and it’s due before Canada’s House of Commons this autumn.
Canadians accuse him of, among other things, cheerfully normalising Trump’s “51st state” talk. The full-circle bit? Hoekstra was born in Groningen — so it’s a Dutch-born ambassador ruffling feathers on the far side of the Atlantic.
So, friendship, marriage of convenience, or full-blown “it’s complicated”? Tell us how you’d label American-Dutch relations in the comments below!
