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Mark Rutte found himself in the spotlight as the two-day summit in the Hague drew to a close as a series of exchanges of diplomatic niceties between the NATO secretary general and Donald Trump went viral.
During a joint press appearance in The Hague on Wednesday, Dutchman Rutte reacted to a bombastic statement on Iran and Israel from the US president, referring to his role as that of a “daddy’ to Israel and Iran in the dispute during a press conference.
“They fought like hell, and then they said let’s stop,” Trump said of Israel and Iran. “They’re not gonna be fighting each other. They’ve had it. Like two kids in a schoolyard – you know they fight like hell, and you can’t stop them. Let them fight for about two three minutes and then it’s easier to stop them,” said the US president.
“Then daddy has to sometimes use strong language to get them to stop,” Rutte quipped, referencing Trump’s use of an expletive on Tuesday, when he told reporters: “We basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don’t know what the f**k they’re doing. Do you understand that?”
Rutte’s eyebrow-raising remark came just a day after Trump published private text messages from Rutte on his Truth Social platform. In the messages, the NATO chief congratulated Trump for his “decisive action in Iran”, calling it “truly extraordinary” and thanking him for doing “what no one else dared to do”.
“Mr President, dear Donald,” the message began before he praised Trump’s longstanding pressure campaign on European allies to boost defence spending, saying the continent would now increase its military budgets “in a BIG way”.
Rutte has since defended the texts, saying they were “appropriate” given the circumstances, and downplayed concerns about their tone. Head of the European Union diplomacy, Kaja Kallas defended Rutte on Euronews’ Europe Today NATO summit special on Wednesday, when she said: “Mark Rutte is speaking Trump. He is speaking the language that President Trump understands.”
Asked during NATO’s closing press conference if his flattery of Trump isn’t demeaning, Rutte replied: “No, I don’t think so, I think it’s a bit of a question of taste. He is a good friend.”
“Doesn’t he deserve some praise?” [for the 5% of spending] – I think he deserves all the praise,” he added, referring to the target of GDP spending on defence for NATO members.
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