Rubio cracks up at Trump's reaction to NATO leader calling president 'daddy'
Secretary of State Marco Rubio cracked up laughing when President Donald Trump gave his reaction to NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte calling the commander in chief "daddy" earlier Wednesday.
During their bilateral meeting in The Hague, Netherlands, Trump discussed the U.S.' role in brokering a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Iran, saying both countries were like "two kids in a school yard" who "fight like hell" for a short time before "it's easier to stop them."
Rutte interjected, "Then daddy has to sometimes use strong language."
Trump had used profanity in front of reporters outside the White House before boarding Marine One on Tuesday, saying about Israel and Iran that they "have been fighting so long and so hard that they don't know what the f--- they're doing. "
At a subsequent press conference Wednesday, Rubio broke into hysterics when a reporter from Sky News asked Trump about the remark.
The reporter reminded Trump that Rutte, "who is your friend.… He called you daddy."
"Do you regard your NATO allies as kind of children?" the reporter asked.
Trump responded lightheartedly, and Rubio could be seen standing next to him starting to smile and laugh. "No, he likes me. I think he likes me. If he doesn't, I'll let you know. I'll come back, and I'll hit him hard. Okay?" Trump said jokingly.
"He did. He did it. Very affectionate," Trump added of Rutte. "'Daddy, You're my daddy.'"
The reporter pressed on with a more serious tone, as Rubio continued to laugh.
"Do you regard your NATO allies, though, as kind of like children?" she said.
NATO leaders on Wednesday committed that the member states would contribute 5% of GDP annually to defense and security obligations by 2035.
"You're obviously appreciative of that," the reporter said. "But do you hope that actually they're going to be able to defend themselves, defend Europe on their own?"
"I think they'll need help a little bit at the beginning, and I think they'll be able to," Trump said. "I think they're going to remember this day and this is a big day for NATO. You know, this was a very big day."
"It's been sort of an amazing day for a lot of reasons, but also for that," Trump added, referencing how the greater contributions were decades in the making. Trump claimed it was not possible until he came along.
The reporter pressed, "Do you think they can do it without you, though in the future? Can they do more states?"
"I mean, you have to ask Mark," Trump said, concluding the press conference. The president had noted earlier that the only NATO member that did not agree to hike its defense contribution was Spain.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Politico
16 minutes ago
- Politico
Trump's war on the courts intensifies
Presented by Bayer Welcome to POLITICO's West Wing Playbook: Remaking Government, your guide to Donald Trump's unprecedented overhaul of the federal government — the key decisions, the critical characters and the power dynamics that are upending Washington and beyond. Send tips | Subscribe | Email Sophia | Email Irie | Email Ben| Email Kyle President DONALD TRUMP's administration is in a full-blown war with the federal courts, with the fate of American governance on the line. That's the only way to read the increasingly confrontational, bare-knuckle tactics that the administration is deploying against the judiciary — and the steady, pointed resistance from judges. On Tuesday night, the Justice Department filed an unusual lawsuit against the entire bench of the federal district court in Maryland — where dozens of cases against the administration are pending — over a blanket, automatic two-day pause on deportations in cases brought by detained immigrants. A department spokesperson said the lawsuit was intended to 'rein in unlawful judicial overreach.' In an increasingly pointed Supreme Court showdown with immigration advocates, Solicitor General JOHN SAUER labeled a federal district judge's order reimposing restrictions on the deportation of eight men to South Sudan a 'lawless act of defiance.' Advocates for the men say the fight is even larger than their clients: It is about whether the high court will countenance the administration's defiance of the courts altogether. While the justices ruminate, skirmishes between the courts and the administration are proliferating and intensifying. In the most high-profile case of all, the criminal prosecution of KILMAR ABREGO GARCIA, a magistrate judge in Texas ripped the Justice Department for allegations that 'defy common sense' and relied on flimsy evidence. In another prominent legal showdown, a federal judge ordered the release of pro-Palestinian activist MAHMOUD KHALIL after determining that his continued detention was an unconstitutional attack on free speech. But even in cases that are off the national radar, judges are expressing shock and dismay at mass deportation tactics that stretch the bounds of the law and Constitution: The clearest distillation of this clash of co-equal branches comes in Trump's attempt to place a staunch loyalist onto the Philadelphia-based bench of the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals. After leading Trump's defense in three criminal cases, EMIL BOVE has become Trump's brashest Justice Department enforcer. He has directed purges of purportedly disloyal prosecutors and attacked the integrity of those who refused to follow orders to drop DOJ's corruption case against New York City Mayor ERIC ADAMS or who participated in the investigation of the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol. A day before Bove's confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, a former Justice Department attorney alleged that Bove spearheaded a drive to sidestep adverse court orders in crucial deportation cases. Those allegations were at the center of Democrats' questions today for Bove, who pledged to be an impartial interpreter of the law, despite his track record as a pro-Trump bulldog. Attorney General PAM BONDI, who will have a role in reviewing the whistleblower complaint against Bove, told senators today that she would 'run through a wall for Emil Bove.' And after testifying, she filed into the Senate Judiciary hearing room to catch the end of Bove's confirmation proceedings. Minutes after it ended, Bondi issued a statement slamming courts that had ruled against Trump, saying their orders were 'designed to halt his agenda.' But the courts so far seem undeterred. This afternoon, a judge rejected DOJ's argument to keep Abrego behind bars while he awaits trial on immigrant smuggling charges in Tennessee. The judge, WAVERLY CRENSHAW, JR., said DOJ's position — that DHS might deport Abrego if he is not detained on his criminal charges — 'defies logic,' since the Trump administration controls both agencies. 'If the Government finds this case to be as high priority as it argues here, it is incumbent upon it to ensure that Abrego is held accountable for the charges in the Indictment,' Crenshaw said. 'If the Department of Justice and DHS cannot do so, that speaks for itself.' MESSAGE US — West Wing Playbook is obsessively covering the Trump administration's reshaping of the federal government. Are you a federal worker? A DOGE staffer? Have you picked up on any upcoming DOGE moves? We want to hear from you on how this is playing out. Email us at westwingtips@ Did someone forward this email to you? Subscribe! POTUS PUZZLER Which former president was buried with a copy of the Constitution under his head? (Answer at bottom.) Knives Out LAKE MAKES HER CASE: KARI LAKE, senior adviser to the U.S. Agency for Global Media, today defended the Trump administration's dismantling of the agency and its independent outlet Voice of America, where more than 600 full-time staffers received termination notices last week, telling the House Foreign Affairs committee that USAGM 'is not needed.' Democratic lawmakers questioned whether Lake was qualified to lead the agency due to her repeated false claims that Trump did not lose the 2020 presidential election and that she did not lose her own gubernatorial and Senate races in 2020 and 2024, respectively. 'I can't imagine how people fighting for democracy today around the world could trust someone who so shamelessly lied about her own election,' said Rep. GREG STANTON (D-Ariz.). One House Republican expressed concern related to the conflict between Israel and Iran, which prompted the agency's Farsi-language service to be hastily called back to work. 'I worry about the U.S. government's ability to win in the information domain during the next crisis, which could be just around the corner,' said Rep. YOUNG KIM (R-Calif.). Agenda Setting EVERY SINGLE STATE: Ahead of the Office of Management and Budget Director RUSS VOUGHT's testimony before the Senate Appropriations Committee this afternoon on the $9.4 billion rescissions package, Vice Chair Sen. PATTY MURRAY (D-Wash.) released a map of the 1,500 local radio and TV stations that would lose funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Some Republicans including Sen. MIKE ROUNDS (R-S.D.) have raised concerns about public broadcasting cuts. 'UNNECESSARILY CHAOTIC': Sen. MITCH McCONNELL, the longest-serving party leader in Senate history, sharply criticized how the administration has executed its plan to root out government waste, our HASSAN ALI KANU writes in. 'There's plenty of absolute nonsense masquerading as American aid that shouldn't receive another bit of taxpayer funding, but the administration's attempt to root it out has been unnecessarily chaotic,' McConnell said to Vought. 'In critical corners of the globe, instead of creating efficiencies, you've created vacuums for adversaries like China to fill.' McConnell has been sharply critical of some of the Trump administration's foreign policy moves, chiefly on its handling of Ukraine. But his comments today raise new questions about his support for the administration's rescissions package. PAGING DR. CASSIDY: The newly formed vaccine advisory committee chosen by HHS Secretary ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR. announced today that it would review childhood vaccines and shots not studied in more than seven years, our SOPHIE GARDNER and DAVID LIM report. The decision by the new group, tasked with reviewing the childhood immunization schedule, could open the door to changes on how and when children are vaccinated. The chair of the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices said the committee would maintain existing working groups tasked with examining vaccines and that new work groups will also be established. MORE ON VACCINES: Kennedy announced today that the U.S. will withdraw financial support for Gavi, a global organization that helps purchase vaccines for children in poor countries, NYT's STEPHANIE NOLEN reports. Kennedy accused the group's leaders of having 'ignored the science' in immunizing children globally. Kennedy argued that Gavi's leaders had been selective in their use of science to support vaccine choices and said that the U.S. would not deliver on its $1.2 billion pledge to support the program until it changed its processes. Gavi's leaders rejected the suggestion that its vaccine purchases were driven by anything other than scientific evidence. In the Courts WIN FOR UNIONS: A federal judge in San Francisco today blocked Trump's executive order seeking to terminate the collective bargaining rights of workers whose unions have opposed and sued the administration, Hassan writes in. Judge JAMES DONATO's order restores the status and rights of about 950,000 federal workers at 21 agencies who are represented by the American Federation of Government Employees and four other unions, according to the AFGE. Trump sought to abruptly revoke collective bargaining rights from much of the public sector in March, relying on a law that allows agencies to be excluded from coverage if the president determines their primary function is national security work. But Donato held that the White House's own statements are fairly clear that at least part of the motivation is unlawful 1st Amendment retaliation. Trump's anti-union policies have survived a separate challenge before the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, which temporarily revived the executive order last month in a case brought by the National Treasury Employees Union. THE WHOLE GANG'S ON BOARD: Almost two dozen Democratic attorneys general are challenging the Trump administration's argument for cutting billions of dollars in federal grant funding for states and other recipients, POLITICO's E&E News' NIINA H. FARAH reports. The new lawsuit, filed in Massachusetts federal district court on Tuesday, is the latest challenge to the administration's 'slash-and-burn campaign' to freeze congressionally mandated funding for an array of programs. The lawsuit does not ask the federal court to restore canceled grant funding, unlike previous, pending challenges. Instead, it asks for a judge to weigh in on the administration's reliance on a clause in a 2020 regulation that says agencies can cancel grant funding that 'no longer effectuates … agency priorities.' WHO'S IN, WHO'S OUT (BIG) BALLS TO THE WALL: The infamous EDWARD CORISTINE, the 19-year-old DOGE staffer known as 'Big Balls,' has left his government role, WIRED's JAKE LAHUT, MAKENA KELLY, VITTORIA ELLIOTT and ZOË SCHIFFER report. 'Edward Coristine resigned yesterday,' a White House official told WIRED. Coristine received full-time employment status at the General Services Administration late last month, but as of Tuesday, his Google Workspace account with GSA was no longer active. His name no longer appears on a White House contact list of current DOGE employees on the federal payroll maintained by a senior administration official. Coristine, according to another former DOGE staffer, 'was one of a small group of technologists who were highly trusted within DOGE and deployed across multiple federal agencies, and given multiple federal laptops,' WIRED writes. What We're Reading The Self-Deportation Psyop (The Atlantic's Nick Miroff) U.S. Textile Makers, Feeling Forgotten by Trump, Hope Boom Days Are Ahead (NYT's Alan Rappeport) A Military Ethics Professor Resigns in Protest (The Atlantic's Tom Nichols) POTUS PUZZLER ANSWER Former President ANDREW JOHNSON was buried in 1875 with a copy of the Constitution under his head and his body wrapped in an American flag, according to the National Park Service.
Atlantic
19 minutes ago
- Atlantic
The Democratic Party Looks to New York for Answers
After its demoralizing defeat in November, the Democratic Party has undertaken an agonizing, months-long self-autopsy to determine how it lost some of its core voters and how to move past an entrenched, older generation of leaders. Zohran Mamdani, the presumptive winner of yesterday's New York City mayoral primary, might provide some of the answers—to a point. Mamdani, a 33-year-old, relatively unknown state assemblyman, ran an invigorated, modern campaign while embracing progressive—and in some cases, socialist—ideas to upset former Governor Andrew Cuomo. He is now on the precipice of leading the nation's largest city. According to some Democrats, Mamdani—charismatic, tireless, optimistic, a master of social media—could be a new leader in a party that is desperate to move on from overly familiar faces. Republicans hope they're right. The GOP is eager to make Mamdani a national figure and hold up some of his ideas (city-run grocery stores! free buses!) as evidence that the Democrats are far to the left of the average voter. Michael Powell: The magical realism of Zohran Mamdani There are, of course, risks to drawing national lessons from a local primary election, particularly one in a city where Democrats make up almost two-thirds of the electorate. Moreover, Cuomo had singular, deep flaws and ran a listless campaign. The incumbent mayor, Eric Adams, wasn't on the ballot, relegated to an independent run after facing allegations of corruption and allying himself with President Donald Trump. But for Democrats desperate to make sense of why their party is so unpopular, Mamdani's win could at least provide a burst of energy, and a few ideas about how to move forward. Democrats have been consumed with questions about what went wrong a year ago. Why didn't more in the party realize that President Joe Biden was too old to win again? How did Trump make inroads with young voters and with the Black and brown voters who have been Democrats' bedrock for generations? How did Trump make gains in some of the nation's biggest and traditionally bluest cities? Did the party move too far to the left, or not far enough? And why was a billionaire ex-president promising tax cuts for the rich seen as the better bet than his opponent to lower prices for working- and middle-class Americans? Since Trump's return to Washington, Democrats have managed to rally around their opposition to Trump's tariffs, DOGE cuts, and hard-line immigration policies. But they have struggled to put forth a coherent positive vision, and to find the right messenger. Few looked to New York City for hope. The mayor's race at first seemed destined to be defined by Adams's scandals. When Cuomo made his entry into the race, many expected that his name recognition and his support from wealthy backers would give him an easy win over a series of well-meaning but uninspiring challengers. Cuomo positioned himself as someone who would stand up to Trump and urged voters to look past his own scandals—he resigned in 2021 after a series of sexual-harassment allegations, which he denied—and to recall instead his level-headed COVID briefings. Of all the candidates, he argued, only he had the management skills to revive a city that has just seemed off since the pandemic. But Cuomo ran a desultory campaign, limiting his exposure to reporters and, more important, to voters. His long-held ambivalence toward the city was evident, as were the rumors that he viewed Gracie Mansion merely as a stepping stone to higher office. He couldn't shake his humiliating exit as governor. A late endorsement from former President Bill Clinton only reinforced the notion that Cuomo represented an aging, tarnished generation of Democrats. 'Cuomo relied on older establishment endorsements that no longer hold weight in the city,' Christina Greer, an associate political-science professor at Fordham University, told me. 'Cuomo also underestimated the extent to which New York voters are tired of disgraced politicians using public office as their contingency plan for life.' (Bill de Blasio, the former New York City mayor who has feuded with Cuomo for years, told me that he ran a 'grim, fear-based campaign with no authentic big ideas.') David A. Graham: How voters lost their aversion to scandal To categorize Mamdani at the beginning of the race as an afterthought would have been an insult to afterthoughts. He has served not even five years in the state assembly, and has little of the experience generally thought needed to manage a civic workforce of more than 280,000 people and a budget of $115 billion. (The New York Times' editorial board deemed him unqualified for the job.) But Mamdani did have energy and charm, and no shortage of ideas that were quickly turned into easy-to-digest slogans such as 'Free buses' and 'Freeze the rent.' He relentlessly focused on affordability and economic issues, a welcome message in a city with an extraordinarily high cost of living and stark income stratification. Mamdani revealed himself to be remarkably adept at communicating his message, mastering social-media memes and delivering powerful speeches that evoked far more of Barack Obama's loft than Biden's whisper. He said yes to seemingly every interview and every podcast, tossing aside the caution traditionally preached by the focus-group-wielding political-consultant class. He tapped into liberal New Yorkers' anger over Gaza. He resonated with young people, including young men, who not only turned out for him but also volunteered for his campaign, creating an enthusiastic army of believers that created a noticeable contrast with Cuomo's support from donors, unions, and establishment figures. In the race's final days, a cheerful Mamdani walked the length of Manhattan, a metaphor for the tirelessness he brought to the race. 'The Democrats nationally need to start doing what Zohran just did. When we metaphorically sit at the kitchen table and empathize and offer passionate solutions, we win,' de Blasio told me. 'We didn't do that in 2024, and that was a big reason we lost.' Mamdani did what so many Democrats failed to do last fall: He excited new voters, focused on economic issues, and communicated his story well. And most of all, he won, including in racially and economically diverse neighborhoods. As of this writing, it appears that there will be no need to rely on multiple rounds in New York City's new ranked-choice voting system; although Mamdani did not crack the 50 percent threshold last night to win the nomination outright, he surpassed Cuomo by about eight points, and the former governor conceded. 'Mamdani created a movement around his candidacy, and the big lesson for Democrats is that young voters are looking for a larger social-political movement and not just an anti-Trump party,' Basil Smikle, a New York–based political strategist who has worked for Cuomo and Hillary Clinton, told me. 'His victory suggests there's a needed reformation of the Democratic coalition, and repudiation of incrementalism but also a more wholesale shift from establishment politics.' But the reverberations from Mamdani's candidacy aren't all reassuring ones for Democrats. Republicans have mocked his socialist ideas by evoking the barren supermarkets of the Soviet Union. They've seized on his previous calls to 'Defund the police' (Mamdani called for reducing the NYPD budget in 2020; he was the only candidate in the Democratic field this year to not pledge to hire more cops). A few Republicans have trotted out racist and Islamophobic stereotypes (Mamdani is of Ugandan-Indian descent and is Muslim). Some Democrats, too, are leery of Mamdani's call for new taxes on businesses and the rich, warning that such policies could lead to a wealth exodus from New York. Republicans have pointed to the sinking poll numbers of Chicago's progressive mayor, Brandon Johnson, as evidence that liberals can't govern. Last night, Vice President J. D. Vance posted on social media, 'Congratulations to the new leader of the Democratic Party,' tagging Mamdani. Trump today went one step further, posting that Mamdani was a '100% Communist Lunatic.' Mamdani's depiction of Israel's actions in Gaza as a genocide threatens to unnerve some members of the city's large and politically active Jewish population. Within hours of Mamdani's acceptance speech, Republican Representative Elise Stefanik of New York sent a fundraising appeal calling him a 'Hamas Terrorist sympathizer.' Mamdani has defended the pro-Palestinian slogan ' Globalize the intifada ' but has denied accusations that he is anti-Semitic. He has said that he supports an Israel that provides equal rights to all of its citizens, but he has repeatedly dodged questions about whether Israel has a right to exist as a Jewish state. Jonathan Chait: Why won't Zohran Mamdani denounce a dangerous slogan? 'Mamdani is a gift to Republicans. They will link every Democrat to his far-left policy proposals,' Susan Del Percio, a Republican strategist who worked in Rudy Giuliani's mayoral administration, told me. 'As mayor of New York City, every single thing he does will be held under a microscope by Democrats and Republicans alike. And some of these things are really out there.' When the mayoral race began, the conventional wisdom was that the Democratic primary would be the de facto general election. That is no longer quite the case. Before last night, Cuomo had previously signaled that if he lost the primary, he might run in November on another ballot line, believing that the glow around Mamdani might wear off with more time and scrutiny. (Those close to Cuomo think that an independent run, though possible, might now be less likely given the margin of his defeat this week.) And while the Republican nominee, the anti-crime activist and radio-show host Curtis Sliwa, seems to have little chance, Mamdani's win might open the door again for Adams; in a remarkable plot twist, the mayor has told associates that he can now position himself as the steadier choice to keep the job. A person close to Trump told me that the president might enjoy wading into the race in his former hometown and would consider endorsing Adams, though he might opt against it out of concern that it would hurt Adams more than help him. Still, the Democratic nominee will be considered the favorite. If Mamdani wins, there will be only so much that his fellow Democrats can learn from the specifics of the race, given New York's liberal tilt. But maybe there will be some lessons that are less about ideology and more about tactics—having energy, communicating clearly and frequently, and focusing on personal economic issues. 'I've already heard from some Democrats who worry that this guy is going to get us all labeled as socialists,' the Reverend Al Sharpton, the civil-rights leader and Democratic stalwart, told me. 'But he hit on something; he connected with something. Mamdani kept showing up. Democrats need to keep showing up.'
Wall Street Journal
20 minutes ago
- Wall Street Journal
It's Time to Revisit the President's War Powers
For now the question whether President Trump needed congressional authorization to take military action against Iran is academic. Nevertheless, Peggy Noonan is right that the framers vested Congress, not the president, with the power to declare war ('Iraq's Shadow Over the Iran Debate,' Declarations, June 21). That power is in tension with the fact, underscored by the Supreme Court's Civil War-era Prize Cases, that the president has not merely the authority but the duty to quell foreign threats to American national security and vital interests. The matter of whether there is such a viable threat is a political one, left by the Constitution to officials electorally accountable to the people whose lives are at stake. It is nonjusticiable: Congress must vindicate its own authority because the courts won't.
