Who's your daddy? These days, who isn't?

IN HIS social media series, Trump Was Born to be a Gay Man, actor Bransen Gates lip-synchs to real recordings of US President Donald Trump saying things that with a few wrist flicks and come-hither eyes - gain an entirely new interpretation.

- MAURA JUDKIS

Gates has acted out the president's monologues about his "beautiful" pole (for a flag), his declaration that he would "kiss every man" in a 2020 rally audience and his assessment of Arnold Palmer's body. (He "was all man," said Trump in October.)

But the Nato summit late last month was a gimme.

In a bilateral meeting, Trump compared the situation between Iran and Israel to a schoolyard spat: "Let them fight for about two, three minutes, then it's easy to stop them," said the president. Secretary General of Nato Mark Rutte interjected.

"Daddy has to sometimes use strong language to get them to stop," the Nato chief said.

Trump, later in a news conference, appeared tickled by his new nickname. "He did it very affectionately, 'Daddy, you're my daddy,'" the president told reporters, in an audio clip Gates later used in one of his Gay Trump videos.

And that's how Daddy Diplomacy was fathered.

Who is Daddy?

What distinguishes the dads from the daddies, other than paternity?

In the LGBTQ+ community - and often outside of it, too the term signifies an "older man who's protective, experienced, usually a more dominant type," Gates says.

These are all associations that the president and his team probably saw as positive. But then: "There's sort of this added layer of kink and role-play to it," he added. "In that context, it's both sort of about reclaiming power and performing fantasy."

That may not have been what the president and his team had in mind when they put out a promotional video about the summit to the tune of the Usher song Daddy's Home. Some of the tamer lyrics:

"I know you've been waiting for this lovin' all day

You know your daddy's home and it's time to play."

Soon, Trump's official campaign store began hawking "Daddy" shirts with the president's mug shot.