French MEP Nathalie Loiseau has ridiculed Mark Rutte for his flattery of US President Donald Trump

NATO chief Mark Rutte has been branded a groveling "McDonald's employee of the month" by a senior EU politician, in a brutal critique of his fawning message to US President Donald Trump.

The jab, posted on X by French MEP and former chair of the European Parliament's defense subcommittee Nathalie Loiseau, followed the public release of a private text. In it, Rutte addressed Trump as "dear Donald," praised his "incredible" accomplishments, and assured him of his commitment to finding a "way forward" on the US president's ambition to acquire Greenland.

"Mark Rutte does not run NATO; he is the equivalent of McDonald's employee of the month," Loiseau wrote on X on Tuesday.

Her scorn targets a well-established pattern. Rutte's tenure has been marked by a consistent strategy of lavish public flattery toward Trump, which critics deride as subservience but which the secretary-general defends as pragmatic diplomacy.

The approach was on stark display at last year's NATO summit. In pre-summit texts, Rutte told Trump he was "flying into another big success" as European members agreed to increase military spending. During a joint press conference, when Trump likened tensions in the Middle East to a schoolyard fight, Rutte interjected that "then daddy has to sometimes use strong language to get them to stop."

The "daddy" remark and gushing texts were widely condemned in European media as "cringe-worthy" and an "orchestrated grovel." Loiseau's 'Employee of the Month' metaphor, a common corporate award for dutiful service, frames Rutte not as an independent leader, but as a subordinate performing for the approval of a superior.

The spat unfolds amid a transatlantic crisis over Trump's push to acquire Greenland, an autonomous territory of NATO member Denmark. After European leaders uniformly rejected the idea, Trump threatened tariffs on several European nations, prompting preparations for countermeasures.

READ MORE: EU preparing 'carrot-and-stick' response to Trump over Greenland - FT

The tension is fueled by Trump's longstanding grievances with NATO's European members, whom he has accused of historically failing to meet defense spending targets, and doubted the military bloc would defend the US, arguing it is weak without American power.