THE HAGUE: NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte on Wednesday likened U.S. President Donald Trump to a “daddy” stepping in to break up a schoolyard fight, following Trump’s inflammatory remarks targeting both Israel and Iran during ongoing Middle East tensions.
Speaking alongside Rutte at a NATO summit, Trump once again lashed out at both countries, saying:
“They’ve had a big fight, like two kids in a schoolyard. You know, they fight like hell, you can’t stop them. Let them fight for about 2–3 minutes, then it’s easy to stop them.”
Rutte responded with a chuckle and added, “And then daddy has to sometimes use strong language to get them to stop.”
The comments came a day after Trump stirred controversy with an expletive-laden description of the conflict, saying that Israel and Iran had been fighting “so long and so hard that they don’t know what the f*** they’re doing.”
Trump’s blunt remarks and unilateral actions, including the bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities, have prompted both praise and outrage. Rutte, when asked if he was being overly deferential to Trump, dismissed the suggestion.
“I don’t think so. It’s a matter of taste,” Rutte said, describing Trump as a “good friend” of over ten years. He also credited Trump with “finally” pushing European allies to increase military spending and lauded his “decisive” military strike on Iran’s nuclear sites.
“When it comes to Iran, the fact that he took this very targeted action to prevent them from acquiring nuclear capability — I think he deserves all the praise,” Rutte stated.
Iran responded with sharp condemnation. Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei denounced Rutte’s praise of the U.S. strike as “disgraceful, despicable, and irresponsible.”
“It is disgraceful, despicable and irresponsible for NATO’s Secretary General to applaud what was clearly a criminal act of aggression against a sovereign nation,” Baqaei wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “Anyone who supports a crime is complicit in it.”
Tensions remain high in the region, even as the ceasefire between Iran and Israel tentatively holds. Trump’s outspoken approach and NATO’s support have further polarized global reactions to the conflict.
