{"id":2588946,"date":"2026-04-09T14:22:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T18:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/rutte-jokes-about-calling-trump-daddy-rather-than-commenting-on-future-of-nato\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T14:24:42","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T18:24:42","slug":"rutte-jokes-about-calling-trump-daddy-rather-than-commenting-on-future-of-nato","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/rutte-jokes-about-calling-trump-daddy-rather-than-commenting-on-future-of-nato\/","title":{"rendered":"Rutte jokes about calling Trump &#8216;daddy&#8217; rather than commenting on future of NATO"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">26<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Frutte-jokes-about-calling-trump-daddy-rather-than-commenting-on-future-of-nato%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2588946&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>At a Reagan Institute event, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte deflected questions about whether President Trump will stay in NATO and whether he would still call him \u201cdaddy\u201d if the president exits the alliance.He framed the \u201cdaddy\u201d remark as a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/eu-lawmakers-call-for-more-legal-migration-to-supposedly-stop-illegal-immigration\/\" title=\"EU Lawmakers Call for More Legal Migration to Supposedly Stop Illegal Immigration\">language issue<\/a>, saying he meant to evoke a stern father and hadn\u2019t realized the phrase\u2019s connotations, adding that he must live wiht it. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/cnns-abby-phillip-says-trump-has-made-himself-batman-and-dc-gotham-city\/\" title=\"CNN\u2019s Abby Phillip says ... has ... himself \u2018Batman\u2019 and DC \u2018Gotham City\u2019\">piece recalls<\/a> a prior exchange in which Trump described Israel and Iran as \u201ctwo countries \u2026 fighting so long and so hard,\u201d and joked that Rutte is like a father figure; Trump later embraced the joke but also criticized NATO in tweets,suggesting the alliance isn\u2019t reliable. Rutte said the conversation was open and pleasant,noting that many European nations have supported the U.S. in countering Iran, and he dodged a direct answer on whether Trump intends to leave NATO. The article places these <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >remarks amid ongoing questions<\/a> about Trump\u2019s future with the alliance and recent tensions over its usefulness.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><\/p>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-header-search-button-mob dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search\" aria-labelledby=\"td-header-search-button\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search-inner\">\n<form method=\"get\" class=\"tdb-search-form\" action=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\"><\/form>\n<div class=\"tdb-aj-search\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/#\" role=\"button\" aria-label=\"Search\" class=\"tdb-head-search-btn dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<h1 class=\"tdb-title-text\">Rutte jokes about calling Trump &lsquo;daddy&rsquo; rather than commenting on future of NATO<\/h1>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-title-line\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<p>NATO Secretary-General <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/mark-rutte\/\">Mark Rutte<\/a> is so unwilling to discuss whether President <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/donald-trump\/\" type=\"post_tag\" id=\"4\">Donald Trump<\/a> is going to leave the alliance that he would rather return to his unfortunate comment from months ago, when he referred to the president as &ldquo;daddy.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Rutte was speaking at the Reagan Institute on Thursday, following his White House meeting the previous day, when a reporter asked him if Trump indicated whether he would stay in NATO &mdash; as well as if he would <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/white-house\/3453435\/trump-mark-rutte-daddy-schoolyard-fight-israel-iran\/\">continue to call him &ldquo;daddy&rdquo;<\/a> if he exits the alliance.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;On the &lsquo;daddy thing,&rsquo; this is a language problem,&rdquo; Rutte immediately jumped to explain. &ldquo;I have to explain to you because it follows me a little bit, I can assure you.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<div class=\"article-paywall\">\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/world\/4476540\/senior-iran-hezbollah-officials-civilians-killed-us-israel-strikes\/\"><strong>WHO HAS BEEN KILLED SO FAR DURING THE IRAN WAR?<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte speaks at the Ronald Reagan Institute, Thursday, April 9, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo\/Manuel Balce Ceneta)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Rutte made headlines in June of last year when he reacted to Trump&rsquo;s comment that <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/israel\/\" type=\"post_tag\" id=\"219\">Israel<\/a> and <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/iran\/\" type=\"post_tag\" id=\"100\">Iran<\/a> were &ldquo;two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don&rsquo;t know what the f*** they&rsquo;re doing.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>He compared Israel and Iran to &ldquo;two kids in a schoolyard&rdquo; and Trump to a father figure, joking that &ldquo;sometimes daddy needs to use strong language.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>The press immediately seized on the bizarre choice of words, and soon the president was sharing in the joke when he said at a press conference: &ldquo;I think [Rutte] likes me. If he doesn&rsquo;t, I&rsquo;ll let you know, and I&rsquo;ll hit him hard. He did it very affectionately &mdash; &lsquo;Daddy, you&rsquo;re my daddy.&rsquo;&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>The NATO secretary-general told the reporters at the Reagan Institute that he meant to evoke the image of a stern father and mentally translated the term to &ldquo;daddy,&rdquo; not understanding at the time that the word had &ldquo;also has a special connotation.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;And the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/champion-trump-former-president-touts-big-tournament-win-in-face-of-weaponized-indictments\/\" title=\"...: Ex-... Celebrates Major Tournament Victory Despite Weaponized Indictments\">president owns<\/a> it, because he brought out T-shirts, he <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/3455109\/trump-embraces-daddy-social-media-campaign\/\">made a movie<\/a> &mdash; &lsquo;Daddy is Home&rsquo; &mdash; when he returned to the United States. It was so funny, and this is why I like him so much,&rdquo; Rutte said.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Now I have to live with this the rest of my life,&rdquo; he added, laughing. &ldquo;But you make mistakes when you&rsquo;re not a native speaker.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Immediately switching to a serious and quieter demeanor, he brushed past the more pressing of the reporter&rsquo;s two questions.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;The conversation was really open, it was really between friends, but it was also really clear &mdash; his disappointment,&rdquo; Rutte quickly summarized.<\/p>\n<p>The <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/nato\/\">NATO<\/a> secretary has been doing clean-up work in Washington after Trump signaled such anger with European unwillingness to help against Iran that he might exit the alliance altogether. <\/p>\n<p>Rutte told CNN after the meeting that he was &ldquo;able to point him to the fact that the large majority of European nations have been helpful&rdquo; and have &ldquo;widespread support&rdquo; for the U.S., &ldquo;degrading the nuclear and ballistic missile capacity&rdquo; in the Islamic Republic.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/policy\/foreign-policy\/4521622\/trump-nato-rutte-meeting-greenland\/\">TRUMP RIPS INTO NATO AFTER RUTTE MEETING, CALLS GREENLAND &lsquo;POORLY RUN PIECE OF ICE&rsquo;<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>That argument does not seem to have appeased the president, who <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/policy\/foreign-policy\/4521622\/trump-nato-rutte-meeting-greenland\/\">wrote not long after the meeting<\/a>: &ldquo;NATO WASN&rsquo;T THERE WHEN WE NEEDED THEM, AND THEY WON&rsquo;T BE THERE IF WE NEED THEM AGAIN.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Rutte has been asked directly multiple times whether Trump indicated intentions to leave NATO, but has consistently dodged the question.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rutte dodges NATO future, jokes about &#8216;daddy&#8217; again<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3468,"featured_media":2588947,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/AP26099572524190.jpg?w=696","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33651],"tags":[70344,77465,50459,64043,32870],"class_list":["post-2588946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-western-journal","tag-donald-trump-2","tag-dutch-politics-2","tag-nato-2","tag-rutte","tag-satire"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/AP26099572524190.jpg?w=696","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2588946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3468"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2588946"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2588946\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2588950,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2588946\/revisions\/2588950"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2588947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2588946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2588946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2588946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}