On Wednesday, June 25th, the NATO summit was held in The Hague, Netherlands. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte vividly described US President Trump’s handling of the Middle East crisis during the meeting. He referred to Trump as “dad” and credited him with helping to resolve the Middle East crisis.
Earlier at the NATO summit in The Hague, Trump likened the fighting between Iran and Israel to children squabbling on a playground. “They had a big fight, just like two kids fighting in the schoolyard. You know, they were really going at it, and you can’t stop them. Let them fight for a couple of minutes, and then it’s very easy to stop,” Trump said.
After Trump compared the warring factions of Israel and Iran to “two kids on the schoolyard,” Rutte added his own analogy, saying with a laugh, “And sometimes dad has to use strong language to make them stop.”
Following a ceasefire agreement between Iran and Israel on Tuesday, Trump remarked that both countries had been “fighting for too long, fighting too hard, to the point where they don’t even know what they’re fighting for.”
On Wednesday, Trump also compared the impact of the US bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities to the impact of the US bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II. “I don’t want to mention Hiroshima or Nagasaki, but it’s essentially the same thing. That war ended. This war ended,” Trump said.
During the closing press conference in The Hague, a reporter asked Rutte, “Doesn’t this seem a bit self-deprecating and make you look weak?” “No, I don’t think so,” Rutte responded. “I think it’s a matter of personal preference. But he is a good friend, and he does some things that force us to do things, like increasing military spending. If he hadn’t been re-elected, would you have expected this summit to achieve such results?”
“Shouldn’t he deserve some leniency?” he continued. Rutte also mentioned Trump’s decision to bomb Iran, emphasizing, “I believe he (Trump) deserves all the praise.”
In a private message later made public by Trump, Rutte highly praised Trump for the airstrikes on Iran. “That was truly unprecedented, nobody would dare to do that,” he wrote.