Polish PM declares “one daddy enough” after NATO chief’s Trump comment

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk delivered a witty and pointed response to NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte’s recent characterization of US President Donald Trump as a “daddy.”

Speaking at a press conference at the conclusion of the EU summit in Brussels, Tusk remarked that “one daddy is enough” for him, Caliber.Az reports, citing Russian media.

“My name is Donald. Maybe it will come as a surprise to you, but my dad’s name was also Donald. And that’s probably a sufficient answer—one daddy is enough,” Tusk stated, addressing a journalist’s question about whether he could be considered the “daddy” of the European Union during Poland’s presidency of the Council of the EU.

The exchange was prompted by comments Trump made on the sidelines of the NATO summit, in which he referred to Iran and Israel as “two kids fighting in the yard.” In response, NATO Secretary General Rutte described Trump as a “daddy,” a metaphor underscoring the US president’s role in mediating complex geopolitical tensions.

During a meeting of the defence bloc in the Hague, Rutte and Trump met following the US president's crass comment on the Iran-Israel war.

Rutte said on that “Daddy has to use strong language” to get Israel and Iran to sort things out, to which Trump agreed.

“You have to use strong language. Every once in a while you have to use a certain word,” the president said.

But the NATO chief's comments raised eyebrows across the world, and later in the day Rutte, the former prime minister of the Netherlands, was forced to backtrack.

He said: “The daddy thing, I didn't call [Trump] daddy, 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, 'hey, are you still staying with the family'"? So in that sense, I use daddy, not that I was calling President Trump daddy.”

But Trump himself appeared to enjoy being called “daddy” as he was referred to at NATO Summit in the Hague by Rutte, who has led the defence bloc since October 2024.

By Vafa Guliyeva