Team Trump hawks ‘DADDY’ T-shirts using mugshot photo after White House embraces NATO chief’s nickname
Trump says ‘how nice!’ in campaign fundraising message promoting $27 T-shirt
Donald Trump’s campaign fundraising arm is now selling T-shirts with the president’s mugshot and the word “DADDY” emblazoned on the front after the White House embraced the nickname used by NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte to describe the president earlier this week.
“THEY’RE CALLING ME DADDY!” the president wrote through a Trump National Committee Joint Fundraising Committee message on Thursday.
“When Biden was President, we were LAUGHED at on the world stage. The whole world WALKED ALL OVER US!” the message said.
“But thanks to your favorite President (ME!) we are respected once again,” the message added. “Moments ago, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte called me DADDY on the world stage. How nice!”
The shirt — featuring Trump’s booking photo from Georgia, where the president and his allies are criminally charged with racketeering and conspiring to overturn 2020 election results in the state — costs $27.
The message follows a White House video on social media that shows Trump returning to Washington after the NATO summit in The Hague, set to Usher’s 2010 song “Hey Daddy (Daddy’s Home).”
Rutte jokingly referred to Trump as “daddy” during a sit-down in front of the assembled press as they discussed the conflict between Israel and Iran. Trump had shared an obsequious text message from Rutte before the summit on Truth Social.
Even after Trump announced a ceasefire between the countries, the missiles kept coming, causing Trump to lash out with some harsh words for both nations.
“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, do you understand that?” Trump told reporters on the South Lawn of the White House before setting off for the summit in the Netherlands.
At the summit, Trump told the press: “They’ve got a big fight, like two kids in a schoolyard. You know, they fight like hell. You can’t stop them, let them fight for two, three minutes, then it’s easier to stop them…”
“And then daddy has to, sometimes, use strong language,” Rutte added.
“Strong language, yeah, every once in a while,” Trump replied.
The president was subsequently asked about the interaction and if it suggested that he viewed other countries as “children.”
“He likes me. If he doesn’t, I’ll let you know, I’ll come back, and I’ll hit him hard,” Trump responded. “He did it very affectionately. ‘Daddy, you’re my daddy.’”
Rutte later said that he was trying to compare Trump’s relationship with Europe to that of a father and his family.
“What I said is that, sometimes, in Europe, I hear sometimes countries saying, ‘Hey, Mark, will the U.S. stay with us?’” he said. “And I said that sounds a little bit like a small child asking his daddy, ‘Hey, are you still staying with the family?’”
The committee has sent more than 1,000 fundraising emails since the president was inaugurated and recently used the protests against the administration’s immigration raids in Los Angeles to ask supporters for cash.
The campaign fundraising committee uses Trump’s images and signature as if the messages were sent by the president himself.
The committees have often used scandals to raise money from supporters. His mugshot has also been put on other T-shirts — and Christmas wrapping paper — and the president’s criminal indictments have been included in hundreds of messages.
In the Trump shop, an array of MAGA hats is available, including those with the phrases “Gulf of America” and “DOGE.”
A copy of the Gulf of America or the DOGE executive orders is available for $43, as are T-shirts depicting Trump after the attempt on his life in Butler, Pennsylvania, last year.
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