NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte has addressed the media frenzy surrounding a remark he made during a joint press conference with U.S. President Donald Trump, clarifying that he did not, in fact, refer to Trump as “daddy.”
The confusion stemmed from an exchange during a bilateral meeting at the NATO Summit in The Hague, where Rutte used the term “daddy” in a comment that quickly made headlines and sparked online speculation.
Speaking to reporters later in the day, Rutte explained the context behind the remark.
“I didn’t call him ‘daddy,’” he said, as reported by The Hill. “What I said was that sometimes in Europe, I hear countries asking, ‘Hey Mark, will the U.S. stay with us?’ I compared that to a child asking their father, ‘Are you still staying with the family?’ So in that sense, I used the word ‘daddy’—but not to describe President Trump himself.”
The original remark came after Trump, using a schoolyard analogy to describe Middle East tensions, commented: “They fight like hell. You can’t stop them. Let them fight for two or three minutes, then it’s easy to stop them.”
Rutte responded with the now-viral line: “Daddy has to sometimes use strong language to get them to stop.”
Trump appeared amused, responding jokingly, “He did it very affectionately though—‘Daddy, you’re my daddy,’” prompting laughter from Secretary of State Marco Rubio and others in the room.
Rutte’s clarification aimed to cool down the buzz around the moment, emphasizing that his choice of words was metaphorical and not a personal reference to the former president.
