logo
Watch: White House embraces Trump as 'daddy'; video goes viral

Watch: White House embraces Trump as 'daddy'; video goes viral

Khaleej Timesa day ago

The White House embraced the moniker of "daddy" for Donald Trump in a video that it released after NATO chief Mark Rutte used the term in a conversation with the US president.
Rutte, the Dutch secretary general of the military alliance, used the word "daddy" in an appearance with Trump at Wednesday's summit after the US president berated Israel and Iran over violations of a ceasefire, which later appeared to be holding.
In response, Rutte laughed and said: "And then daddy has to sometimes use strong language to get (them to) stop."
"Daddy's home," the White House posted on X and Instagram, along with the video featuring the song "Hey Daddy (Daddy's Home)" by Usher and images of Trump at the NATO summit in The Hague.
Take a look at the video the White House posted to announce Trump's return from his visit to the Netherlands to attend the summit:
The clip went viral and got over 7,000 comments. One user said: "Imagine calling Trump 'daddy'. That's the most pathetic thing I've ever heard", and another saying: This is just so embarrassing. How is this real life?"
On Tuesday, Trump said Iran and Israel had been fighting"so long and so hard that they don't know what the fuck they're doing".
In an interview with Reuters after the summit, Rutte said he had used the word "daddy" to describe how some allies seem to view the United States, rather than about Trump specifically.
"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?'" Rutte said.
"So in that sense, I used daddy, (it's) not that I was calling President Trump daddy."
Asked if this meant other NATO members were like children who were now growing up after a pledge to spend more on defence, Rutte said they "already have grown up" but realised they had to step up and "equalise" defence spending with the US.

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Trump betrayed the diplomatic effort, says Iranian FM
Trump betrayed the diplomatic effort, says Iranian FM

Gulf Today

time22 minutes ago

  • Gulf Today

Trump betrayed the diplomatic effort, says Iranian FM

Tehran: Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has dismissed US President Donald Trump's declaration that their countries would re-engage in nuclear negotiations in the coming week. 'If our interests require a return to negotiations, we will consider it. But at this time, no agreement or promise has been made, and no talks have taken place.' Araghchi made the point that they were negotiating when Israel launched its June 13th unprovoked attack on Iran. Trump followed up last weekend by striking three Iranian nuclear sites with bunker buster bombs with the intention of finishing off Iran's nuclear programme. Araghchi accused Trump of betraying the diplomatic effort to resolve differences. While Trump claimed the US had "obliterated" Iran's main nuclear sites, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Rafael Grossi said the sites had been seriously damaged but suggested that Iran should be able to enrich uranium "in a matter of months." According to CNN, the Trump administration could encourage Iran to resume talks by offering $20-30 billion to establish a civilian nuclear energy programme without Iranian enrichment of its own nuclear fuel. The finance, it is said, could be provided by the Gulf countries, naturally not the US. The administration would also ease sanctions and unfreeze Iranian assets in foreign banks. While such a speculative deal has been deliberately leaked and widely reported, it is unlikely to materialise. It looks like "pie in the sky," as the saying goes. Tehran is unlikely to reject a return to talks, but Iran is still assessing its military, political, and diplomatic losses from Israel's 12-day war and US strikes on its nuclear sites. Iran has to lay down its own conditions and decide when the atmosphere is propitious before re-engaging. Iran has laid down two red lines: low level uranium enrichment must continue on Iranian soil and Iran will not discuss its ballistic missile programme which Iran argues is essential for self-defence. Trump seeks to cross these red lines by eliminating both domestic enrichment and missiles. Trust has not characterised Iranian-US relations since Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini over-threw Washington's ally Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi in early 1979 and, radical "students" seized control of the US embassy in Tehran and held staff for 444 days. They were not freed until Ronald Regan had taken over the US presidency from Jimmy Carter. Unfortunately, this gesture did not clear the way for the restoration of relations due to US rejectionism. The blow of losing the Shah, compounded by the humiliation of the embassy occupation made the US, particularly Congress, testy and unforgiving and easily influenced by domestic and Israeli anti-Iran hawks. Iranian popular trust in the US was undermined during the decades-long the rule of the shah who developed Iran's economy and carried out modernising social reforms but ruled with an iron fist. His tool was his intelligence agency Savak which allied with the US Central Intelligence Agency and Israel's Mossad. The shah put Iran firmly in the Western camp during the Cold War with the Soviet Union and adopted pro-Israel policies. Iranian resentment continues over the 1953 US-British coup against popularly elected Prime Minister Mossadegh who nationalised the Anglo-Iranian oil company. Resentment intensified when in 1954, the shah reached a deal giving Western countries control of Iran's oil industry. He also allowed US companies to play a dominant role in trade and Iran's domestic markets. This was exploited by the Iranian opposition, especially Khomeini who mounted his "revolution" from exile in France. He returned to Tehran in early 1979 after the shah had fled to the US. After several years of turmoil, Khomeini installed the cleric-dominated model of governance A decade after the fall of Shah, Iran's President Hashemi Rafsanjani (1989-1997) tried and failed to reconcile with the US and the West. He was followed by Mohammed Khatami (1997-2005) who in 1999 launched his "Dialogue of Civilisations" which he hoped would achieve this end. One effort in this campaign was a Cyprus conference attended by US scholars, policy makers, influential Iranians, and foreign correspondents. While Khatami's call for dialogue failed to change Washington, one result of this conference was the creation of the website Gulf 2000 which continues to provide platform for information and comment on Iran, the Gulf and the region. Khatami was succeeded by erratic hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (2005-2013). His hostile attitude toward the US and the West gave a boost to the powerful anti-Iran lobby in Washington, which was heavily influenced by Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu who had tried for three decades to drag the US into a war with Iran. The landmark 2015 agreement limiting Iran's nuclear programme in exchange for lifting sanctions was negotiated during the presidency of reformist Hassan Rouhani (2013-2021). Iran carried out its commitments under the Obama administration deal and secured some relief from sanctions which had crippled its economy. At that time, IAEA chief Grossi said Iran's nuclear programme was "primitive." The deal restricted enrichment to 3.67 per cent for civilian power plants, reduced its stockpile, compelled Iran to export enriched uranium above the limit, and compelled Iran to use old model centrifuges for enrichment. Iran was subjected to the most stringent and invasive regime of monitoring and inspections ever imposed on any country. However, in 2018, Trump aborted the deal and proclaimed1,500 sanctions, disrupting the process of reconstituting US-Iran relations. Iran responded in 2019 by enriching uranium to 20 and 60 per cent, amassing a large stockpile, building advanced centrifuges, and curbing IAEA monitoring, Hardliners in the Iranian clerical establishment engineered the 2021 election of Ebrahim Raisi who reverted to an anti-US stance until he died in a helicopter crash in 2024. Iran again swung to the reformist faction by electing Masoud Pezeshkian as president who had pledged to clinch a new nuclear agreement. Having failed to restore relations with the US, which remains Iran's chief antagonist on the global scene, Tehran has cultivated ties within the region. This process was expanded by the 2023 restoration of Saudi Iranian relations and promised the stability Gulf countries require to pursue economic and social advancement. This has been jeopardised by Israel's war on Iran and US military and political intervention.

Musk lashes out at Senate's take on ‘beautiful' megabill
Musk lashes out at Senate's take on ‘beautiful' megabill

Gulf Today

time22 minutes ago

  • Gulf Today

Musk lashes out at Senate's take on ‘beautiful' megabill

Elon Musk has slammed the Senate version of President Donald Trump's "Big, Beautiful Bill" as support for the motion to proceed with the legislation in the upper chamber comes down to the wire. "The latest Senate draft bill will destroy millions of jobs in America and cause immense strategic harm to our country!" Musk wrote on X on Saturday afternoon. "Utterly insane and destructive. It gives handouts to industries of the past while severely damaging industries of the future." Senate Republicans dropped the final text of the sprawling 940-page bill late on Friday evening. Trump has said he wanted the Senate to pass the legislation — which would include sweeping spending cuts to pay for the tax cuts he signed into law in 2017, increased spending for the military, oil exploration, and immigration enforcement —before the July 4th weekend. Republicans, who have 53 seats, plan to pass the bill using the process of budget reconciliation. That would allow them to sidestep a filibuster from the Democrats as long as the legislation relates to the budget. For the past week, the Senate parliamentarian's office has issued advisories about which parts do not comply with the rules of reconciliation. The biggest sticking point was major changes to Medicaid. Specifically, the legislation would require that Medicaid recipients who are able-bodied and without dependent children would have to work or participate in community service or education for 80 hours a month. In addition, the legislation limits the amount of money states can tax health care providers like hospitals and nursing homes to raise money for Medicaid. But the American Hospital Association said this would devastate rural hospitals that rely on Medicaid dollars. The parliamentarian removed the provider tax provision, but the new version of the bill simply delays when the cap goes into effect. Before the text dropped, Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, who hails from a state with a large number of rural hospitals and that expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act in 2023, said he was a "no" on the motion to proceed because of Medicaid. "It will cause a lot of people to have to be moved off of Medicaid," he told The Independent on Friday evening. "Is just inescapable. The price tag's too high, and the transition protocol, even if you agree with the ultimate target." In addition, the legislation also rolls back some of the renewable energy tax credits implemented in the Inflation Reduction Act, the legislation former President Joe Biden signed that used the same budget reconciliation process. If the bill passes the Senate, it will return to the House of Representatives, which passed it last month. But plenty of conservatives have made objections to the Senate's changes. Trump lobbied senators on Saturday while playing golf with Senators Rand Paul of Kentucky and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. Tillis, who's up for re-election in 2028, outlined his opposition to the bill again on Saturday, saying in a statement that "It would result in tens of billions of dollars in lost funding for North Carolina, including our hospitals and rural communities. This will force the state to make painful decisions like eliminating Medicaid coverage for hundreds of thousands in the expansion population, and even reducing critical services for those in the traditional Medicaid population." Senator Tim Sheehy of Montana wrote on X ahead of the vote on Saturday, "I have just concluded productive discussions with leadership. I will be leading an amendment to strip the sale of public lands from this bill. I will vote yes on the motion to proceed. We must quickly pass the Big Beautiful Bill to advance President Trump's agenda." While, President Donald Trump threatened Senate Republicans who defy him and his 'Big, Beautiful Bill' as the legislation cleared a key test vote in a dramatic night in the upper chamber of Congress. After negotiations dragged on for hours Saturday evening, the Senate voted 51 to 49 to open a debate on the legislation, moving one step closer to landing the bill on Trump's desk by his self-imposed Fourth of July deadline. The Independent

Israel orders evacuations in northern Gaza as Trump calls for war to end
Israel orders evacuations in northern Gaza as Trump calls for war to end

Dubai Eye

timean hour ago

  • Dubai Eye

Israel orders evacuations in northern Gaza as Trump calls for war to end

The Israeli military ordered Palestinians to evacuate areas in northern Gaza on Sunday before intensified fighting against Hamas, as US President Donald Trump called for an end to the war amid renewed efforts to broker a ceasefire. "Make the deal in Gaza, get the hostages back," Trump posted on his Truth Social platform early on Sunday. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was due to hold talks later in the day on the progress of Israel's offensive. A senior security official said the military will tell him the campaign is close to reaching its objectives, and warn that expanding fighting to new areas in Gaza may endanger the remaining Israeli hostages. But in a statement posted on X and text messages sent to many residents, the military urged people in northern parts of the enclave to head south towards the Al-Mawasi area in Khan Younis, which Israel designated as a humanitarian area. Palestinian and UN officials say nowhere in Gaza is safe. "The (Israeli) Defense Forces is operating with extreme force in these areas, and these military operations will escalate, intensify, and extend westward to the city centre to destroy the capabilities of terrorist organisations," the military said. The evacuation order covered the Jabalia area and most Gaza City districts. Medics and residents said the Israeli army's bombardments escalated in the early hours in Jabalia, destroying several houses and killing at least six people. In Khan Younis in the south, five people were killed in an airstrike on a tent encampment near Mawasi, medics said. NEW CEASEFIRE PUSH The escalation comes as Arab mediators, Egypt and Qatar, backed by the United States, begin a new ceasefire effort to halt the 20-month-old conflict and secure the release of Israeli and foreign hostages still being held by Hamas. Interest in resolving the Gaza conflict has heightened in the wake of US and Israeli bombings of Iran's nuclear facilities. A Hamas official told Reuters the group had informed the mediators it was ready to resume ceasefire talks, but reaffirmed the group's outstanding demands that any deal must end the war and secure an Israeli withdrawal from the coastal territory. Hamas has said it is willing to free remaining hostages in Gaza, 20 of whom are believed to still be alive, only in a deal that will end the war. Israel says it can only end it if Hamas is disarmed and dismantled.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store