NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has expressed regret over calling Donald Trump “daddy,” insisting that his now infamous nickname for the president got lost in translation.
The former Dutch Prime Minister sparked memes, merchandise, and mockery last year when he made the comment during a NATO summit at the Hague as he praised the 79-year-old president’s foreign policy skills.
However, Rutte’s so-called “daddy diplomacy” has been wearing thin among jittery U.S. allies in recent weeks amid Trump’s ongoing attacks on NATO over their refusal to get involved in the Iran war.
Tensions escalated even further on Wednesday, when Trump lashed out at the alliance again after a tense meeting with Rutte in the Oval Office. Reports also emerged that the White House was considering a plan to punish some of the member countries who Trump believes were unhelpful in the Middle East.
Asked on Thursday if he still considered Trump “daddy,” Rutte attempted to walk back his comments, saying there had been a “language” problem.
“I have to explain to you, because it follows me a little bit, I can assure you now,” he told a forum at Washington’s Ronald Reagan Institute.
“In Dutch, you would say, ‘Hey, the translation of your father is daddy’. And I would say, ‘Hey, yeah, sometimes daddy has to be angry. So I was not calling him my daddy. But of course, daddy has also a special connotation, and I now have to live with this,” he explained.
Despite expressing regret over the remark, Rutte also said he owns it, as does the president, “because he brought out T-shirts; he made a movie, ‘Daddy is Home’, when he returned to the United States”—a reference to a cringey online video the White House produced with images of Trump set against Usher’s song, Hey Daddy.
“This was so funny, and this is why I like him so much,” Rutte said. “But hey, yeah, you make mistakes, and this is when you are not a native speaker. Sorry for that.”
The comments came as the two-week truce between the U.S. and Iran entered another fragile day as both sides head into peace talks in Pakistan on Saturday. But Trump’s anger towards NATO shows no signs of abating.
After his meeting with Rutte on Wednesday, Trump took to Truth Social and resurrected his threat to acquire Greenland, a semiautonomous territory of NATO member Denmark.
“NATO WASN’T THERE WHEN WE NEEDED THEM, AND THEY WON’T BE THERE IF WE NEED THEM AGAIN. REMEMBER GREENLAND, THAT BIG, POORLY RUN, PIECE OF ICE!!!” he wrote.
The comment belies the fact that allied nations came to America’s aid after September 11 and died assisting U.S. forces on the frontlines of Afghanistan.
Trump hit out at the alliance again in a morning tirade on Thursday.
“None of these people, including our own, very disappointing, NATO, understood anything unless they have pressure placed upon them!!!” he wrote.
Despite the attacks, Rutte continued to lavish Trump with praise during Wednesday’s forum. He was also reluctant to push back on Trump’s desire to punish countries he felt had not done enough to help America in the Middle East conflict.
“He was disappointed yesterday, but we also had a fair and frank discussion amongst friends,” the NATO boss said, agreeing that Europe had to “step up” more broadly.
