In a moment that could only happen in the cooked year of 2025, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte called US President Donald Trump “daddy” in front of the world’s press at this year’s NATO summit.
In case you’re wondering if you misread that, you unfortunately didn’t.
The whole thing started with Trump, fresh from crashing out mid-interview over Iran and Israel being accused of violating their ceasefire agreement. In case you missed it, less that 24 hours after Trump announced a ceasefire between the two nations, he was caught swearing on camera about the ongoing conflict.
“We basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard, that they don’t know what the fuck they’re doing. Do you understand that?” he said.
When pressed about his reaction at the NATO summit he compared Israel and Iran to “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”.
Rutte, not missing a beat, replied, “Daddy has to sometimes use strong language to [get them to] stop.”
I hate it here.
Trump, ever the showman, leaned into the whole thing, telling the press: “No, [Rutte] likes me. I think he likes me. If he doesn’t, I’ll let you know. I’ll come back and I’ll hit him hard, OK? He did it very affectionately, ‘Daddy, you’re my Daddy’,” and happy Pride Month I, guess!
Rutte, who’s only been NATO’s top diplomat for nine months, was then asked by reporters if he thought calling Trump “daddy” was a bit much.
He shrugged it off as “a question of taste”, but doubled down on his praise, calling Trump “a good friend” and saying he deserved “all the praise” for his recent military decisions regarding Iran.
For those keeping track, this is the same Trump who, days earlier, ordered the bombing of three Iranian nuclear sites. Rutte said, “When it comes to Iran, the fact that he took this decisive action, very targeted, to make sure that Iran would not be able to get his hands on a nuclear capability — I think he deserves all the praise.”
Meanwhile, Trump was clearly enjoying his moment as NATO’s main character, even referencing the US bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki when asked about his actions against Iran. “I don’t want to use an example of Hiroshima, I don’t want to use an example of Nagasaki, but that was essentially the same thing. That ended that war. This ended the war,” he said.
He’s also been floating the idea that he deserves “four or five” Nobel Peace Prizes for the whole affair.
Of course, not everyone was on board with the flattery. One European official, speaking anonymously, summed up the mood: “People are so embarrassed… the summit was a success on the whole. But the sucking up was pretty over the top,” per Politico.
If you’re wondering if Trump’s strikes on Iran actually did what he claims, the answer is: maybe not. The New York Times reported that intelligence officials believe the bombing “sealed off the entrances to two of the facilities but did not collapse their underground buildings”.
In other words, the strikes might have set back Iran’s nuclear program by a few months, not years. When pressed about this at the summit, Trump said the intelligence was “very inconclusive”, but then added, “It was very severe. It was obliteration,” per Reuters. So, take your pick.
So far the fragile ceasefire between Israel and Iran appears to be holding. However, it is clear the damage is already done with at least 627 people killed in Iran during its conflict with Israel between June 13 and June 25 according to Iranian state media outlet IRIB, which cited the Iranian Health Ministry. 4,870 people are estimated to have been injured during the same period.
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