NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte praised President Donald Trump for leading “crucial” joint U.S.-Israeli strikes that killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei during an appearance on Fox News on Monday morning.

Rutte told Fox & Friends that other European leaders backed Trump’s mission as well. He said:

Let me also say that the commander-in-chief, the leader of the free world, President Donald J. Trump, I really commend what is happening here. Taking out Khamenei, taking out the nuclear capability in Iran, but also taking out the ballistic missile program in Iran. This is crucial.

What I see in Europe — I spoke with all the key European leaders over the weekend — is widespread support for what the president is doing.

Co-host Lawrence Jones followed up on that comment, noting that it didn’t seem like all European countries were giving their full support to the U.S. He pointed to the United Kingdom, where Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Sunday his country would now allow the U.S. to use certain British military bases, after initially blocking the Trump administration from doing so.

“Why the trepidation?” Jones asked.

Rutte said the U.K. had needed the “legal case to be solid” to support the operation, but that the country had “come around” to supporting it.

His comments came shortly before Trump told CNN’s Jake Tapper that Operation Epic Fury was going well and ahead of schedule.

“We’re knocking the crap out of them,” Tapper said the president told him. Trump then said, “We haven’t even started hitting them hard. The big wave hasn’t even happened. The big one is coming soon.”

Rutte and Trump appear to have a pretty good relationship, for what it’s worth. Trump said in January he negotiated a “complex” deal with Rutte for the U.S. to control Greenland, but details have been sparse since then.

Watch above via Fox News.

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