NATO chief clarifies what he really meant when he called Trump ‘daddy’ as president leaks private texts

Mark Rutte has clarified his comments on President Donald Trump after calling him 'daddy'.

The 2025 NATO summit has just taken place in The Hague in the Netherlands over the past two days, where heads of state from NATO countries came together to discuss varying worldly topics.

During one of the discussions held, NATO Secretary General Rutte referred to Trump as 'daddy' in a metaphor for the current tensions between states, and now, he's explained what he meant.

For context, one key part of discussions was each respective country's military and how much they spend of defense. Trump has long been calling for countries to agree to pay five percent of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP), as some feel that America has long been footing the bill when coming to fighting any enemies — for example Iran, whom he ordered an air strike on last week.

Trump himself was a hot topic and the fact he swore in an interview in recent days after being asked about Iran and Israel breaking their very short-lived ceasefire.

Donald Trump had a foul-mouthed response to Israel and Iran breaking their ceasefire (Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

"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," he said.

Trump and Secretary General of NATO Mark Rutte were asked about the ceasefire by reporters yesterday (June 25).

"They've had a big fight, like two kids in a schoolyard," Trump said of the ongoing unrest, per Sky News. "You know, they fight like hell. You can't stop it. Let them fight for about two, three minutes, then it's easy to stop them."

Rutte then added: "And then Daddy has to sometimes use strong language to get it stopped."

Speaking after the unexpected remarks about the POTUS, Rutte insisted that he was not calling Trump 'daddy'.

"The 'daddy' thing, I didn't call him daddy," he said. "What I said is that sometimes in Europe, I hear sometimes countries saying, 'Hey Mark, will the US stay with us?' And I said, that sounds a little bit like a small child asking his daddy, 'Are you still staying with the family?'"

Mark Rutte has clarified his 'daddy' comments about Trump (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

Rutte concluded, Mail Online reports: "So in that sense I was using 'daddy' not that I was calling President Trump 'daddy'."

His comments about Trump come shortly after the president shared a private text he was sent by the NATO official where Rutte voiced his support.

"Congratulations and thank you for your decisive action in Iran, that was truly extraordinary, and something no one else dared to do. It makes us all safer," Rutte's message read, per The Telegraph.

While some wouldn't be best pleased at their private correspondence being made public, Rutte was unfazed and said that there wasn't anything secret in the message that couldn't be shared.