Why blame Mark Rutte for playing to Trump’s ‘Daddy’ issues?
When Nato secretary general Mark Rutte laughingly told Donald Trump that his comparison of Iran and Israel to “two kids in a school yard” who “fight like hell,” brought to mind “daddy”, everyone’s inner psychiatrist stopped to listen.
Mr Rutte, a plainspoken Dutchman who came to Nato after running his country for 14 years, told Mr Trump: “And then daddy has to sometimes use strong language to get them to stop.”
The framing seemed to appeal to Mr Trump. His White House has embraced Mr Rutte’s terminology and the great man himself left The Hague in exultant mood, exuding peace and goodwill (to the extent Mr Trump ever can). Mr Trump, as has been noted by those who know him personally or professionally, may have profound daddy issues.
But Europe was appalled. Poland’s prime minister Donald Tusk offered a sour response when asked if he’s the “daddy” of Poland’s closing European Council presidency: “One daddy is enough, that’s for sure, especially with the same name.” Belgian PM Bart de Wever suggested German chancellor Merz could be the “new daddy”.
European Union Special Representative for the Sahel João Gomes Cravinho played armchair psychologist on TV saying Mr Trump has “personality deformations” that make him “need to be flattered constantly.” Mr Cravinho, a former Portuguese foreign minister, also criticised Mr Rutte’s “servile” attempts to keep Mr Trump happy during the Nato summit and said they were “embarrassing”.
Were they really? Did Mr Rutte let down Europe and Nato? Or should he be praised for his cunning and perspicacity?
After all, Mr Rutte managed to get Mr Trump to leave the Nato summit promising to stand by the 32 countries covered by the military alliance. The US president didn’t blow up Article 5 of Nato, its core promise of common defence. And Mr Trump said rather nice things about Ukraine’s president Volodomyr Zelensky.
Everything can change on a dime with Mr Trump, but for the moment, he’s okay with Nato, which buys Europe time to build up its own military arrangements.
It is Mark Rutte who bought Nato and Europe time. He’s an efficient and pragmatic politician, if rather an odd fish. Long seen as bland, Mr Rutte prides himself on viewing political jobs as tasks rather than ideological battles. He is known to be fond of quoting West German chancellor Helmut Kohl: If anyone has visions, they had better see a doctor.
The strangest fact about Mr Rutte, a lifelong bachelor, is that he never cooks and owns no pots and pans.
Clearly, he’s not one for hot food. Or hot anything. Which might explain the cool way the Nato summit proceeded even in the presence of the hot-headed big ‘daddy’.
