{"id":59345,"date":"2026-05-13T09:21:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T17:21:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/?p=59345"},"modified":"2026-05-13T09:21:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T17:21:11","slug":"whos-your-daddy-now-failing-war-empowering-euros-to-break-with-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/2026\/05\/13\/whos-your-daddy-now-failing-war-empowering-euros-to-break-with-trump\/","title":{"rendered":"Who&#8217;s Your Daddy Now? Failing War Empowering Euros To Break With Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/6sb5sCIZA4o?si=NYzr-hcGt2E1vFe5\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><span style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Nearly a year ago, NATO Chief Mark Rutte of the Netherlands was excoriated for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2025\/06\/25\/nato-chief-calls-trump-daddy-00423485\">calling Donald Trump \u201cdaddy\u201d<\/a> in reference to the American president\u2019s \u201ctough talk\u201d on Europe, whether it be on member states\u2019 per capita contributions to the defense pot, or Washington\u2019s demands to \u201ctake\u201d Greenland.<\/p>\n<p>This was at a time of course when European leaders believed that appeasing Trump in such ingratiating terms, and in dulcet tones pitched to soothe rather than challenge, was the way to the man\u2019s heart, if not soul. It certainly did not work.<\/p>\n<p>So after Trump\u2019s second attack on Iran in Feb. 28 and the resulting Iranian closure of the Hormuz Strait happened, some Europeans decided to change their tune. In addition to Rutte never again uttering the word \u201cdaddy,\u201d the Spanish president Pedro Sanchez <a href=\"https:\/\/responsiblestatecraft.org\/spain-trump-iran\/\">closed off the country\u2019s bases<\/a> to U.S. military access and condemned Trump\u2019s war as a violation of international law. Germany\u2019s Frederich Merz <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=IGM6DWj7C54\">called<\/a> the Iran War \u201chumiliating\u201d for the U.S. Italy has closed its bases, and UK and French leaders said the U.S. could only use their bases to defend UK and French assets, not to launch operations against Iran.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Trump looked around and demanded NATO member states help him wrench control of the strait from Iran. Aside from pledging to meet and come up with ideas to secure the strait <em>after the war, <\/em>no one has complied. To say Trump is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=htzRxvXBNYs\">agitated and lashing out<\/a> as a result is an understatement.<\/p>\n<p>The situation has called into question the future of NATO, as the administration has suggested that the alliance is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.stripes.com\/theaters\/europe\/2026-03-31\/rubio-spain-europe-nato-bases-21234835.html\">falling down on its Article 5 obligations<\/a>, which is not true \u2014 a member was not attacked and NATO is not an offensive alliance designed to enter wars at members\u2019 behest. Regardless, if the cohesion of NATO was shaky before, <a href=\"https:\/\/responsiblestatecraft.org\/iran-war-nato\/\">some are saying it\u2019s on life support now<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>I spoke with some of the most astute European foreign policy commentators around who also happen to be former diplomats in the UK and Latvia, <a href=\"https:\/\/thepeacemonger.substack.com\/\">Ian Proud<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/quincyinst.org\/author\/eldar-mamedov\/\">Eldar Mamedov<\/a>. We talked about all of this, as well as European hypocrisy when it comes to \u201cinternational law,\u201d too. Please read their great work on Responsible Statecraft <a href=\"https:\/\/responsiblestatecraft.org\/author\/ianproud\/\">here<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/responsiblestatecraft.org\/author\/emamedov\/\">here<\/a>. Ian has a great podcast on substack called the <a href=\"https:\/\/thepeacemonger.substack.com\/\">Peacemonger<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>And check out this latest <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=6sb5sCIZA4o&amp;t=158s\">episode<\/a> above, and if you are so inclined, please subscribe to our You Tube Channel too, it helps beat the algorithm!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\ufeff Nearly a year ago, NATO Chief Mark Rutte of the Netherlands was excoriated for calling Donald Trump \u201cdaddy\u201d in reference to the American president\u2019s \u201ctough talk\u201d on Europe, whether it be on member states\u2019 per capita contributions to the defense pot, or Washington\u2019s demands to \u201ctake\u201d Greenland. This was at a time of course 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insulting them for a year, Trump is now looking around is seemingly at a loss as to why these Europeans won't help him fight his war in Iran. Eldar Mamedov and Ian Proud join me this week."},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/69"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59345"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59345\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59348,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59345\/revisions\/59348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59345"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=59345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}