"NATO chief Mark Rutte joked that 'you will all hate me' as he lavished more praise on Donald Trump, while addressing EU lawmakers at the parliament in Brussels on Tuesday. "Without President Trump, we would not have taken those decisions [to increase NATO spending] — these eight, nine countries not at 2% late last year, and the whole of the Alliance committing to 5% defence spending. I would say that is thanks to President Trump. And I know you will all hate me now saying this, but this is what I believe. And I'm going to repeat that. And that's why we need a transatlantic relationship," he said. Rutte famously called Trump 'daddy' - saying 'Daddy has to sometimes use strong language' - when defending the US leader's use of expletives to refer to Israel and Iran last June. The past days and weeks have seen rows with the US over Greenland, with Donald Trump pledging to take control of it 'one way or another'. In recent days, the UK has suggested deploying NATO troops to the region, which some media reports suggested was about 'easing Trump's security fears' and others claimed was about 'deterring' the US president. Trump has repeatedly said he wanted control of the Danish territory since his re-election in 2024, with it triggering debate over Greenland's own difficult relationship with its former Danish coloniser. Earlier, Danish PM Mette Fredriksen stated: "It has not been easy to stand up against completely unacceptable pressure from our closest allies through a generation, but much simultaneously suggests that the hardest part now lies ahead of us." "