Nato chief's gushing message to ‘Dear Donald' at summit
Nato members have agreed to significantly increase their defense spending to 5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2035.
Secretary General Mark Rutte credited Donald Trump for driving this change, addressing him as 'Dear Donald' and declaring, 'you made this change possible'.
The new commitment, ratified at the annual summit in The Hague, specifies that 3.5 percent of GDP will go to core defense requirements, with the remaining 1.5 percent allocated for critical infrastructure, civil preparedness, and strengthening defense industrial bases.
This agreement comes after years of Donald Trump's insistence on greater burden-sharing, including past threats regarding the alliance's mutual defense provisions.
During the summit, Donald Trump affirmed his commitment to Nato's Article Five mutual defense provision, stating, "We're with them all the way."
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Daily Mail
27 minutes ago
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'I didn't call him daddy!' Nato chief insists he did not call Donald Trump daddy... like that
Nato chief Mark Rutte has been forced to backtrack on an embarrassing remark - where he apparently called US president Donald Trump 'daddy.' During a meeting of the defence bloc in the Hague yesterday, Rutte and Trump met following the US president's crass comment on the Iran-Israel war. It was there that the US President he said: 'We basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don't know what the f*** they're doing.' Rutte said on Wednesday 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... 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From saluting SS camps to playing with Goering's model trains - new podcast reveals how Hitler manipulated a 'deluded' Edward VIII into becoming a 'Nazi puppet'
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'Throughout the story of Edward and Wallis Simpson, there is a swastika', Hardman said. 'There was Nazi influence all the way through. In the run up the abdication, Hitler was issuing instructions to his diplomats in London to try and stop it. Hitler believed Edward was on his side. 'There are well documented stories Simpson's links to Nazi politicians and diplomats in London. 'It was clear by 1937, that Edward VIII would, in any given situation, lean towards the Nazi side.' Upon arrival in Germany, Edward foolishly sees himself as a 'peacemaker', as Kate Williams told the podcast. 'That vision he had of himself was hopelessly naive', Williams described. 'Because for Nazi Germany, the former King turning up and having the red carpet laid out for them is giving consent to the regime. 'It's treated like a Royal progress – crowds' wave away. The couple are greeted by the British national anthem accompanied by Nazi salutes. They dine with high-ranking Nazis including Goering, Goebbels, Ribbentrop and Speer. 'All of the Nazi charm is brought out to bear on Edward and Wallis, and they are there with their eyes closed to the reality of the situation.' During the tour, Edward is taken to munitions factories, SS training camps and Hitler's Salzburg Mountain retreat, the Berghof. An SS trooper would later recount how Edward relished in saluting the soldiers and declaring the shared racial ties between the British and German peoples. Visiting Berchtesgraden for a private meeting with Hitler, Edward reportedly killed time waiting for the Fuhrer by viewing Goering's prized model train set. Hardman explained: 'There's a hilarious lunch where Goering entertains the couple: he lays on this chorus of mountain huntsman with these horns to serenade them Get your weekly dose of Royal scandals and palace intrigue on this Mail podcast Hosted by Royal Historians Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams, Queens, Kings, and Dastardly Things looks at the Royal Family - the secrets, the palace intrigues, and the Crown's bloodiest moments. Listen wherever you get your podcasts now. 'Of course, they feel terribly important. At last, Edward thinks, I am being treated like the King I once was, and my wife, the Queen she should have been. 'After lunch, Goering shows them his model railway set, and they're utterly charmed by this. You get these amazing glimpses into what a bunch of crackpots these guys all were.' Exactly what the former King and Hitler discussed in their private meeting remains unknown to this day. According to his advisor Dudley Forwood, Edward told the dictator that the 'British and German races are one and they should always remain one.' In 1966, Edward told a reporter that he and Hitler had discussed the need to destroy communist Russia. Williams said: 'The King later says of the meeting that Hitler made him realise Red Russia was the true enemy. 'He convinced him that Great Britain and Europe should encourage Germany to march East and crush communism once and for all. 'The Duke of Windsor becomes obsessed with the idea that he and the Nazis can be best friends – he's impossibly naive about the realities of the regime.' Following their meeting, rumours would dog Edward that he had tacitly agreed to replace his brother as King in the event of a Nazi occupation of Great Britain. Addressing the veracity of these rumours, Hardman said: 'I do think Edward was deluded – his sympathies did lie strongly with the Nazi cause. 'But it's probably pushing it too far to suggest that there was a plot to put the Duke of Windsor on the throne. 'What is true is that when asked whether he would ever come back to Britain to be President if we ever became a republic – he said yes. 'He was happy to countenance the fall of the monarchy and taking over some sort of head of state role. 'Whether he would be willing to do that under the aegis of Nazi Germany is a deeper question.' To hear about the political fallout of the visit and how Edward and Wallis spent the war, search for Queens, Kings and Dastardly Things now, wherever you get your podcasts.
