--- title: Trump Embraces ‘Daddy’ Nickname description: After Trump was likened to a father figure at the NATO Summit, the White House posted a video to the soundtrack of Usher’s “Hey Daddy (Daddy’s Home).” canonical: https://time.com/7297927/trump-daddy-nickname-nato-mark-rutte-john-daly-tucker-carlson/ author: Miranda Jeyaretnam article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2025-06-26T04:45:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-11T01:04:21.290Z article:section: Politics og:title: Trump Embraces ‘Daddy’ Nickname og:description: After Trump was likened to a father figure at the NATO Summit, the White House posted a video to the soundtrack of Usher’s “Hey Daddy (Daddy’s Home).” og:url: https://time.com/7297927/trump-daddy-nickname-nato-mark-rutte-john-daly-tucker-carlson/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3e657d812567fa8c/6998c7d225f3ee8bfa644c7b/trump-nato.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: NATO Summit In The Hague Final Day og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump Embraces ‘Daddy’ Nickname twitter:description: After Trump was likened to a father figure at the NATO Summit, the White House posted a video to the soundtrack of Usher’s “Hey Daddy (Daddy’s Home).” twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3e657d812567fa8c/6998c7d225f3ee8bfa644c7b/trump-nato.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Trump Embraces ‘Daddy’ Nickname > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Miranda Jeyaretnam](https://time.com/author/miranda-jeyaretnam/)  ## Miranda Jeyaretnam Reporter Jun 26, 2025 4:45 AM UTC  President Donald Trump at a press conference at the NATO Summit in The Hague, Netherlands, on June 25, 2025. President Donald Trump at a press conference at the NATO Summit in The Hague, Netherlands, on June 25, 2025. Jakub Porzycki—NurPhoto/Getty Images  by [Miranda Jeyaretnam](https://time.com/author/miranda-jeyaretnam/)  ## Miranda Jeyaretnam Reporter Jun 26, 2025 4:45 AM UTC Donald Trump loves to give nicknames. To himself ([Honest Don](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/donald-trump-nickname-for-himself%5Fn%5F65f04821e4b0bd5228d57b1b), [A Very Stable Genius](https://edition.cnn.com/2018/01/06/politics/donald-trump-white-house-fitness-very-stable-genius), [The King](https://time.com/7259662/king-trump-founding-fathers-constitution-monarchy-democracy-republic/)). To others ([Crooked Hillary](https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/crooked-hillary-marco-donald-trumps-nicknames/story?id=39035114), [Sleepy Joe](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-08-06/from-twitter-to-tiktok-trump-supporters-spread-sleepy-joe), [Gavin Newscum](https://www.cbsnews.com/sacramento/news/trump-adds-another-nickname-to-his-arsenal-targeting-governor-gavin-newsom/)). Now he seems happy to take one: “Daddy.” The White House [posted](https://x.com/WhiteHouse/status/1938053287535616085) a video Wednesday night showing the U.S. President attending [the NATO summit this week](https://time.com/7297698/nato-2025-summit-trump-iran-ukraine-defense-topics/) to the soundtrack of R&B singer Usher’s 2010 song “Hey Daddy (Daddy’s Home).” > [](https://twitter.com/whitehouse/status/1938053287535616085) The post was in apparent reference to [NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte](https://time.com/7295448/rutte-nato-secretary-general-interview/) appearing to call Trump “daddy” on Wednesday when asked about Trump’s [expletive-laced rebuke](https://time.com/7297315/ceasefire-iran-israel-trump-f-bomb/) of Israel and Iran after the two countries [risked upending](https://time.com/7297098/israel-iran-ceasefire-broken-missile-strikes-tehran/) a fragile [ceasefire he had just helped broker](https://time.com/7297049/iran-israel-ceasefire-trump/). “We basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don’t know what the f-ck they’re doing,” Trump [said](https://x.com/cspan/status/1937468807536169315) Tuesday as he left the White House for The Hague. “Daddy has to sometimes use strong language,” Rutte [said](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxzTg96RKOU), sitting beside Trump at the summit. > [](https://twitter.com/AFP/status/1937889870619304124) Rutte earlier lauded Trump, according to text messages Trump [posted](https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/114738606142462442) to his Truth Social platform, for [authorizing strikes](https://time.com/7296469/u-s-strikes-iran-nuclear-trump-war/) on three nuclear facilities in Iran over the weekend. When asked Wednesday about Rutte calling him “daddy,” Trump [said](https://www.nbcnews.com/video/trump-asked-about-nato-chief-mark-rutte-calling-him-daddy-242239045532): “He likes me. If he doesn’t, I’ll let you know, I’ll come back, and I’ll hit him hard.” “He did it very affectionately, ‘Daddy, you’re my daddy,’” Trump imitated. > [](https://twitter.com/olivialarinaldi/status/1937885768762139002) Rutte later tried to [clarify](https://x.com/reuters/status/1938060899639537856) that he did not mean to call Trump “daddy” but rather to liken Trump’s relationship to Europe to that of a father figure. “What I said is that sometimes, 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?’” It’s not the first time Trump’s been called daddy, and he seems to like it. In a 2023 interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, golfer John Daly [said](https://www.tiktok.com/@tuckercarlson/video/7312855307552853294) he and fellow golfers “want Daddy Trump back.” Trump posted about the reference on Truth Social [at the time](https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/111586208943521719) and [again a few months later](https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/112315147940969000). Daly [has said](https://youtube.com/shorts/d4fgQMUKhE0) he’s [called Trump “daddy”](https://youtu.be/5Iv7jrti9MQ) since the two met in 1992. Carlson also once compared Trump to a father figure at an October 2024 rally when he likened some of the American public to a “hormone-addled 15-year-old daughter” who’s been allowed to “slam the door and give you the finger.” “There has to be a point at which Dad comes home,” Carlson [said](https://youtube.com/shorts/9naoY75-g0g). “And when Dad gets home, you know what he says? ‘You’ve been a bad girl. You’ve been a bad little girl, and you’re getting a vigorous spanking right now.’” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/7297927/trump-daddy-nickname-nato-mark-rutte-john-daly-tucker-carlson/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/7297927/trump-daddy-nickname-nato-mark-rutte-john-daly-tucker-carlson/"},"headline":"Trump Embraces ‘Daddy’ Nickname","datePublished":"2025-06-26T04:45:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-11T01:04:21.290Z","description":"After Trump was likened to a father figure at the NATO Summit, the White House posted a video to the soundtrack of Usher’s “Hey Daddy (Daddy’s Home).”","url":"https://time.com/7297927/trump-daddy-nickname-nato-mark-rutte-john-daly-tucker-carlson/","keywords":["Donald Trump","overnight","News Desk"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3e657d812567fa8c/6998c7d225f3ee8bfa644c7b/trump-nato.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Miranda Jeyaretnam","jobTitle":"Reporter","url":"https://time.com/author/miranda-jeyaretnam/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3e657d812567fa8c/6998c7d225f3ee8bfa644c7b/trump-nato.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"NATO Summit In The Hague Final Day","caption":"Donald Trump at NATO Summit In The Hague Final Day","creditText":"Jakub Porzycki—NurPhoto/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/7297927/trump-daddy-nickname-nato-mark-rutte-john-daly-tucker-carlson/","name":"Trump Embraces ‘Daddy’ Nickname"}}]}] ```