President Donald Trump took part in a flurry of greetings with world leaders eager to get face time with the U.S. president during his brief stint at the NATO Summit.

Upon arriving, the president was welcomed by Dutch royals — King Willem-Alexander, Queen Maxima, and their daughter Crown Princess Amalia. He became the first president to stay at the king’s palace, Huis ten Bosch Palace.

‘I had breakfast with the king and queen this morning — beautiful people,’ Trump said. ‘I slept beautifully.’

The president said he left The Hague with fonder feelings toward the NATO alliance than when he’d arrived. 

‘I came here because it was something I’m supposed to be doing, but I left here a little bit differently,’ Trump said. ‘I left here saying that these people really love their countries. It’s not a ripoff. And we’re here to help them protect their country.’

He participated in photo ops with world leaders from across the political spectrum — friend and foe alike — and received fawning praise from NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, who likened him to the father of the alliance.

‘Daddy has to sometimes use strong language,’ Rutte said in defense of Trump’s expletive-laden criticism of Israel and Iran for threatening the ceasefire he negotiated.

The president was riding high amid warming relations with the alliance he previously threatened to pull out of. After months of combativeness with Europe over defense spending and liberal policies, Trump praised the alliance for agreeing to his demand to raise its defense spending target to 5% of GDP. 

‘Believe it or not, allies have increased spending by $700 billion,’ Trump said in a news conference. ‘his week, the NATO allies committed to dramatically increase their defense spending to that 5% of GDP, something that no one really thought possible.’

Even Spain — the only nation not to agree to commit 5% to defense — got a relatively mild drubbing from the president. 

I like Spain. I have so many people from Spain. It’s a great place, and they’re great people. But Spain is … the only country out of all of the countries that refuses to pay. And, you know, so they want a little bit of a free ride,’ he said.

It was certainly a different tone from Vice President JD Vance’s address at the Munich Security Conference.

‘The threat that I worry the most about vis-à-vis Europe is not Russia. It’s not China. It’s not any other external actor,’ Vance said at the time. ‘What I worry about is the threat from within the retreat of Europe from some of its most fundamental values, values shared with the United States of America.’

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. 

A Democratic lawmaker hurled profanity at White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller on Wednesday, going on to imply that Miller is a Nazi.

Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Wisc., made the statement on social media in response to some of Miller’s commentary on New York City. Miller was discussing democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani’s victory in the Democratic primary for New York City’s mayoral election, saying unchecked immigration was a major contributor to the city’s leftward slide in recent years.

‘NYC is the clearest warning yet of what happens to a society when it fails to control migration,’ Miller wrote.

Pocan chimed in: ‘Racist ****. Go back to 1930’s Germany.’

Pocan weighed in on Mamdani’s win multiple times, lashing out at another user who claimed the democratic nominee, who is Muslim, supports ‘Sharia Law.’

‘I love watching MAGA nut jobs spinning total bull**** to overcome blatant racism and xenophobia,’ Pocan responded to the post. ‘People want progressive populism that focuses on making their lives better, not redistribution of wealth from working people to the wealthiest. Trumpism is on the decline.’

Republicans have capitalized on Mamdani’s victory as evidence of the extremism of the current Democratic Party. The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) was among the first to make the connection.

‘The new face of the Democrat Party just dropped, and it’s straight out of a socialist nightmare,’ they wrote in an email.

Aiming to tie House Democrats to Mamdani, NRCC spokesman Mike Marinella argued that ‘every vulnerable House Democrat will own him, and every Democrat running in a primary will fear him.’

Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York, a top ally of President Donald Trump who is seriously considering a run for Empire State governor next year, also pounced. Stefanik claimed that ‘a radical, Defund-the-Police, Communist, raging Antisemite will most likely win the New York City Democrat Mayoral primary.’

Vice President JD Vance also weighed in, writing, ‘Congratulations to the new leader of the Democratic Party’ in a post on Blue Sky, a social media platform frequented by progressives.

Fox News’ Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.

JERUSALEM – After 12 days of fighting, President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared victory against Iran’s nuclear program. 

Trump declared three nuclear sites had been obliterated, as Netanyahu announced that Israel had ‘removed an immediate dual existential threat: both in the nuclear domain and in the area of ballistic missiles’ – achievements the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) failed to reach throughout some 20 years of monitoring Iran’s nuclear activities. 

Dr. Or Rabinowitz, a nuclear proliferation scholar from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a visiting associate professor at Stanford University, told Fox News Digital that the IAEA ‘cannot, by itself, stop a country that wants to divert nuclear material and technology from its civilian program to its military program.’ 

‘It can warn, and that’s what it has been doing,’ she said. ‘Sometimes these warnings led to United Nations Security Council resolutions, and sometimes they didn’t, but the IAEA by itself, can’t do more than that – it is only as strong as the board members and the countries that participate in it.’

Days before Israel launched its military assault on Iran with the aim of removing the nuclear – and conventional – weapons threat, the global nuclear watchdog reported that Iran had an estimated 408.6 kilograms (nearly 901 pounds) of uranium enriched to 60%, enough to make some nine nuclear bombs. 

The report, which also criticized Iran’s lack of cooperation with the IAEA, prompted the agency’s board of governors, for the first time in 20 years, to declare that the Islamic Republic was in breach of its non-proliferation obligations.

‘We shouldn’t be surprised by this failure, and we should add to this failure, the failure of the United Nations,’ said Dr. Yoel Guzansky, a senior fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University. 

Guzansky highlighted the fact that just a week ago, in the midst of launching hundreds of ballistic missiles into Israeli towns and cities, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi addressed the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva. 

‘Iran was welcomed there, and Israel was bashed,’ he noted.  

‘It just shows that the U.N. system has long failed, and is long in need of remodeling, remaking, rebuilding,’ Guzansky continued, adding that compared to other U.N. bodies, ‘the IAEA is fairly okay.’

‘It’s not black and white, it has had some achievements, but it depends on what your expectations are,’ he continued. ‘I don’t think anyone expected that the IAEA would entirely prevent Iran.’

Guzansky said that two decades of inspections and such reports had actually allowed Israel, and the U.S., to ‘gather intelligence and an understanding of Iran’s nuclear program’ – a fact that was tested over the past week and a half. 

Iran has consistently maintained that all its nuclear activities were entirely peaceful and that it would never seek to develop or acquire nuclear weapons. 

‘The real problem here isn’t necessarily the IAEA, it’s that Iran has been cheating for 20 years and has not been playing a straight bat,’ said Alan Mendoza, Executive Director of the Henry Jackson Society.

‘Iran has been confusing and tricking and secretly developing programs, which the IAEA has not been able to access,’ he said, adding, ‘so, in many ways, it’s not the IAEA fault, per se, it doesn’t have any enforcement capabilities — its job is just to monitor.’ 

Mendoza also said that Iran’s ability to advance its nuclear ambitions and enrich uranium to weapons grade level was ‘really the fault of the international community, rather than an agency.’ 

‘This could have been cracked down upon years ago, as we have now seen, whether by military or other means, to actually force Iran into compliance,’ he said. 

‘What this ultimately shows you is that when you have an international malefactor who continues to want to game the system, the only way to deal with them is to blow up the system and say, ‘Okay, you want to play it that way,’ well, here’s our response.’

Despite the U.S. and Israel’s successful use of force, the IAEA has held back from commending their actions. 

At an emergency session of the agency’s board members on Monday, Rafael Grossi, the IAEA’s Director General, was still urging diplomacy and warning that fighting risked ‘collapsing the global nuclear Non Proliferation regime.’ 

‘There is still a path for diplomacy, we must take it, otherwise violence and destruction could reach unimaginable levels, and the global Non-Proliferation regime that has underpinned international security for more than half a century could crumble and fall,’ he said, without a word about Iran’s lack of transparency and its clear violation of international agreements over more than two decades. 

But on Tuesday, two days after the U.S. military carried out massive precision strikes on three key nuclear sites in Iran, Grossi told Fox News’ Martha MacCallum that his agency did not know where nearly 900 pounds of potentially enriched uranium is now located, after Iranian officials said it had been removed for protective measures ahead of the US strikes on nuclear facilities in Iran.

‘Like all the international bodies who have been condemning US and Israeli action, these organizations exist for the purpose solely of diplomacy,’ Mendoza said, adding, ‘The agency doesn’t have any military function. It has no recourse to it. It can’t call for it, so, if you think about it, all they’re doing is merely protecting their position within the international system.’

Requests for a response from the IAEA were not immediately answered on Wednesday.

President Donald Trump’s historic precision strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites Saturday hit their targets and ‘destroyed’ and ‘badly damaged’ the facilities’ critical infrastructure — an assessment agreed upon by Iran’s Foreign Ministry, Israel and the United States.

‘Our nuclear installations have been badly damaged, that’s for sure,’ Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Ismail Baghaei told Al Jazeera.

Israel’s Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir said its assessment is that Iran’s nuclear program has been ‘significantly damaged,’ while Israel’s Atomic Energy Commission described the U.S. strikes as ‘devastating.’

‘The devastating U.S. strike on Fordo destroyed the site’s critical infrastructure and rendered the enrichment facility inoperable,’ Israel’s Atomic Energy Commission said. ‘We assess that the American strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, combined with Israeli strikes on other elements of Iran’s military nuclear program, has set back Iran’s ability to develop nuclear weapons by many years.’

It added: ‘The achievement can continue indefinitely if Iran does not get access to nuclear material.’

And as for the United States, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan ‘Razin’ Caine said that initial battle damage assessments indicate that ‘all three sites sustained extremely severe damage and destruction.’

‘More than 125 U.S. aircraft participated in this mission, including B-2 stealth bombers, multiple flights of fourth and fifth generation fighters, dozens and dozens of air refueling tankers, a guided missile submarine, and a full array of intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance aircraft, as well as hundreds of maintenance and operational professionals,’ Caine said in a press briefing. 

And Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that ‘given the 30,000 pounds of explosions and the capability of those munitions, it was devastation underneath Fordow.’

‘Any assessment that tells you otherwise is speculating with other motives,’ Hegseth said.

The agreement on the assessment of damage between the United States, Israel and Iran comes amid a report that cited leaked low-confidence intelligence from one intelligence agency that suggested the U.S. strikes did not destroy Iran’s nuclear sites.

A Defense Intelligence Agency source told Fox News that the ‘low confidence’ assessment was based on just ‘one day’s worth of intelligence reporting.’ 

More intelligence has been gathered in the days since through other sources and methods, according to the source.

‘This is a preliminary, low-confidence report and will continue to be refined as additional intelligence becomes available,’ the Defense Intelligence Agency said. ‘We are working with the appropriate authorities to investigate the unauthorized disclosure of classified information.’

And Secretary of State Marco Rubio blasted the report and said that Iran’s nuclear program ‘today looks nothing like it did just a week ago.’

‘That story is a false story, and it’s one that really shouldn’t be re-reported because it doesn’t accurately reflect what’s happening,’ Rubio said. ‘Everything underneath that mountain is in bad shape.’

Rubio also added that ‘there is no way Iran comes to the table if somehow nothing had happened.’

‘This was complete and total obliteration. They are in bad shape,’ Rubio said. ‘They are way behind today compared to where they were just seven days ago because of what President Trump did.’

Even the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi assessed that ‘very significant damage is expected to have occurred.’

‘At the Esfahan nuclear site, additional buildings were hit, with the US confirming their use of cruise missiles,’ he said, according to prepared remarks for the International Atomic Energy Agency.  

‘Affected buildings include some related to the uranium conversion process,’ he said. ‘Also at this site, entrances to tunnels used for the storage of enriched material appear to have been hit. At the Natanz enrichment site, the Fuel Enrichment Plant was hit, with the U.S. confirming that it used ground-penetrating munitions.’

Meanwhile, Trump has been in the Netherlands at the NATO Summit, where he was met with praise from allies on his ‘decisive’ action in Iran.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte praised Trump as a ‘man of strength’ and a ‘man of peace’ during Wednesday’s summit. 

‘I just want to recognize your decisive action on Iran,’ Rutte said at the start of his joint remarks with the president. ‘You are a man of strength, but you are also a man of peace. And the fact that you are now also successful in getting this ceasefire done between Israel and Iran — I really want to commend you for that. I think this is important for the whole world.’

The president on Wednesday declared that the United States would strike Iran again if the country attempts to rebuild its nuclear program.

Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, wants President Donald Trump to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

The lawmaker is introducing a resolution Wednesday that declares the U.S. Senate ‘calls on the Norwegian Nobel Committee to award President Donald John Trump the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize,’ ‘urges all peace-loving nations to join in that call’ and ‘expresses its deepest appreciation to President Trump for bringing an end both to the nuclear program of Iran and hostilities related thereto in only 12 days.’

President Barack Obama was awarded the prize in 2009, less than one year after taking office.

‘Obama won the Nobel, then he killed hundreds of civilians and did nothing to stop Forever Wars,’ Moreno declared in a post on X. ‘Now President Trump did what neocons said couldn’t be done—destroying Iran’s nuclear facilities & securing a ceasefire. It’s time to formally nominate him.’

Rep. Earl ‘Buddy’ Carter, R-Ga., who is running for U.S. Senate, also nominated Trump for the award this week.

In a nomination letter, the congressman said he was nominating Trump ‘in recognition of his extraordinary and historic role in brokering an end to the armed conflict between Israel and Iran and preventing the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism from obtaining the most lethal weapon on the planet.’

‘His leadership at this moment exemplifies the very ideals that the Nobel Peace Prize seeks to recognize: the pursuit of peace, the prevention of war, and the advancement of international harmony,’ Carter’s letter declared.

Fox News’ Tyler Olson contributed to this report

The Trump White House is waiving executive privilege for key former Biden administration aides who have been summoned by Republicans on the House Oversight Committee.

Chair James Comer, R-Ky., is probing the alleged cover-up of former President Joe Biden’s mental decline. 

Letters obtained by Fox News Digital via a source familiar with the matter show the Trump administration will not allow the people of interest in Comer’s probe to use their past White House work as a legal shield.

Deputy Counsel to the President Gary Lawkowski sent the letters to former Biden Chief of Staff Ron Klain, former senior advisors Anita Dunn, Steve Ricchetti, Mike Donilon, Annie Tomasini, Bruce Reed and Ashley Williams, and Anthony Bernal, former advisor to former first lady Jill Biden.

‘In light of the unique and extraordinary nature of the matters under investigation, President Trump has determined that an assertion of executive privilege is not in the national interest, and therefore is not justified, with respect to particular subjects within the purview of the House Oversight Committee,’ the letters said.

‘Those subjects include your assessment of former President Biden’s fitness for the office of the President and your knowledge of who exercised executive powers during his administration.’

Both congressional Republicans and the White House are investigating whether those senior Biden aides played any role in keeping concerns about the elderly former president’s mental acuity shielded from the public eye and even from lower-level White House staff.

It is not clear if any of the aforementioned former Biden aides planned to claim executive privilege in communications with the committee, but it is not unheard of for a new administration to waive it for investigations involving its predecessor.

The Biden administration waived executive privilege for records sought by the now-defunct House select committee on the Jan. 6 Capitol attack in 2021.

The Biden White House also rejected executive privilege claims made by Peter Navarro and Michael Flynn in that panel’s investigation. However, the latest movement in Comer’s probe comes after he and committee staff held their first closed-door interview with one of Biden’s former aides.

Neera Tanden appeared on Capitol Hill for an hourslong sworn deposition Tuesday. As it had for others, the Trump White House waived any claim to executive privilege for Tanden’s sitdown.

She told reporters afterward that there was ‘absolutely not’ any effort by senior aides to disguise Biden’s mental state.

‘I answered every question, was pleased to discuss my public service, and it was a thorough process, and I’m glad I answered everyone’s question,’ Tanden also said.

A source familiar with the matter told Fox News Digital that Tanden testified she had minimal interaction with Biden in her role as staff secretary.

‘To obtain approval for autopen signatures, she would send decision memos to members of the President’s inner circle. She stated that she was not aware of what actions or approvals occurred between the time she sent the memo and the time she received it back with approval,’ the source said.

Bernal is set to sit down with Comer and investigators for his own testimony on Thursday.