Held amidst the Israel-Iran conflict, the NATO summit in The Hague is being hailed a success for the way it managed to bring a confrontational US President Donald Trump around, but what triggered headlines was NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte calling Trump ‘Daddy’.
Rutte’s light-hearted remark may have broken the serious aura of the summit on Wednesday but it also “embarrassed” a lot of European officials, who believed he went “over the top”. Interestingly, Rutte’s remark came when Trump was asked about dropping the ‘F-Word’ a day earlier to chastise both Israel and Iran for violating a recently brokered ceasefire.
“They’ve had a big fight, like two kids in a schoolyard. They fight like hell, you can’t stop them. Let them fight for about two, three minutes, then it’s easier to stop them,” Trump said in a press appearance alongside Rutte. It was then that Rutte pitched in.
“Then daddy has to sometimes use strong language to get them to stop,” Rutte quipped.
Trump didn’t clearly mind the remark, stating Rutte used it very “affectionately”. “I think he likes me. ‘Daddy, you’re my daddy,” Trump said later Wednesday.
Rutte too defended his remark. When asked if the “Daddy” remark showed weakness, the former Dutch Prime Minister said it was “a matter of taste”. “No, I don’t think so, I think it’s a bit of a question of taste. He is a good friend.”
However, his remark left European officials embarrassed, according to Politico, which described Rutte’s approach to Trump as “slavish”. “People are so embarrassed,” one European official told Politico. “Yes, the summit was a success on the whole. But the sucking up was pretty over the top,” the official added.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas told Euronews that Mark Rutte was speaking Trump. “He is speaking the language that President Trump understands,” Kallas said.
Rutte also came under scanner for his flattery of Trump. A day before he arrived at The Hague, Trump published private text messages from Rutte on his Truth Social platform. In the messages, the NATO chief congratulated Trump for his “decisive action in Iran”, calling it “truly extraordinary” and thanking him for doing “what no one else dared to do”.
Rutte later reacted to Trump publishing the message, stating he didn’t mind it.
Not just Rutte, every European leader reportedly went leaps and bounds to please the US President. “We are taking the approach of talking to Trumpworld and MAGA,” one European diplomat told Politico. “It’s not just sucking up to the Americans. It’s not just that we’re doing all of this to please the Americans.”
