NATO boss calls Trump ‘daddy’

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has rushed to defend US President Donald Trump’s recent expletive-laden rant about Iran and Israel as merely “daddy” using “strong language.”

Trump on Tuesday lashed out at both countries for allegedly breaching a Washington-brokered ceasefire, telling reporters before departing for the NATO summit in the Hague that West Jerusalem and Tehran have “been fighting so long and so hard that they do not know what the f**k they are doing.” 
The outburst came hours after he announced the truce, which was reportedly broken soon after by both Israel and Iran.

Asked about the remark during a joint press conference the next day, Trump likened the two nations to “kids (fighting) in a schoolyard.” Rutte, seated beside him, added: “And then daddy has to, sometimes, use strong language.”

When a reporter later brought up the comment, Trump laughed and replied, “Daddy – you’re my daddy,” saying that the NATO chief had meant it “affectionately.”

“I think he likes me, if he doesn’t, I’ll come back and hit him hard,” Trump joked.

Rutte’s flattery wasn’t limited to the stage. Ahead of the summit, Trump published private text messages in which a fawning Rutte praised the US president’s “decisive action in Iran” as “truly extraordinary” and said it “makes us all safer.” He went on to tell Trump, “You will achieve something NO American president in decades could get done,” and boasted that “Europe is going to pay BIG.” A NATO spokesperson later confirmed the authenticity of the exchange.

Rutte also used the summit itself to back Trump’s controversial push for NATO members to more than double their military spending to 5% of GDP. At Wednesday’s press conference, he called Trump “a good friend” and said he “deserves all the praise” for forcing the issue.

Asked by a reporter whether such overt admiration made him look weak, Rutte brushed it off: “I don’t think so. I think it’s a bit of a question of taste.”