Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on June 26, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 23, 2026
Add as preferred source on GoogleThe White House embraced the 'daddy' title for Trump after NATO chief Rutte's remark, highlighting U.S. influence at the NATO summit.
BRUSSELS (Reuters) -The White House embraced the moniker of "daddy" for Donald Trump in a video that it released after NATO chief Mark Rutte used the term in a conversation with the U.S. president.
"Daddy’s home," the White House posted on X, along with the video featuring the song "Hey Daddy (Daddy's Home)" by Usher and images of Trump at the NATO summit in The Hague.
Rutte, the Dutch secretary general of the military alliance, used the word "daddy" in an appearance with Trump at Wednesday's summit after the U.S. president berated Israel and Iran over violations of a ceasefire, which later appeared to be holding.
In response, Rutte laughed and said: "And then daddy has to sometimes use strong language to get (them to) stop."
On Tuesday, Trump said Iran and Israel had been fighting "so long and so hard that they don't know what the fuck they're doing".
In an interview with Reuters after the summit, Rutte said he had used the word "daddy" to describe how some allies seem to view the United States, rather than about Trump specifically.
"In Europe, I hear sometimes countries saying, 'Hey, Mark, will the U.S. stay with us?' And I said that sounds a little bit like a small child asking his daddy, 'Hey, are you still staying with the family?'" Rutte said.
"So in that sense, I used daddy, (it's) not that I was calling President Trump daddy."
Asked if this meant other NATO members were like children who were now growing up after a pledge to spend more on defence, Rutte said they "already have grown up" but realised they had to step up and "equalise" defence spending with the United States.
(Reporting by Andrew Gray; editing by Mark Heinrich)
The White House released a video embracing the term 'daddy' for Donald Trump, featuring images from the NATO summit and the song 'Hey Daddy (Daddy's Home)' by Usher.
Mark Rutte used the term 'daddy' to describe how some allies perceive the United States, indicating a sense of dependence rather than directly calling Trump 'daddy'.
Trump commented that Israel and Iran had been fighting 'so long and so hard that they don't know what the fuck they're doing'.
Rutte laughed and remarked that 'daddy has to sometimes use strong language to get (them to) stop', referring to Trump's comments.
Rutte mentioned that NATO members have 'already grown up' but realized they need to step up their defense spending commitments.
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