President Donald Trump hinted in an interview with a British newspaper that he is considering withdrawing the United States from NATO after repeatedly criticizing member states’ lack of support for the Iran war.
Asked by the right-wing Telegraph if he would reconsider America’s post-war membership in NATO, Trump said: “Oh, yeah, I would say there’s no reason to reconsider…I’ve never been swayed by NATO. I always knew they were a papier-mâché tiger. By the way,[Russian President Vladimir]Putin knows that, too.”
Members of the defensive military alliance NATO have been reluctant to deploy military assets to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a vital oil shipping route that Iran effectively shut down in response to U.S. and Israeli attacks.
Trump’s comments, reported Wednesday, are the latest in a series of rebukes he has issued against NATO allies for “not being there” for the United States. He told countries struggling to procure jet fuel due to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday to “gather your courage, go to the Strait and just take it.”
“You have to start learning how to fight for yourself. America will no longer be there to help you, just as you have not been there for us,” the president wrote on Truth Social.
For NATO members, an alliance based on the principle of collective defense, President Trump’s position is perplexing. Article 5, which states that an attack on one is an attack on all, has only been invoked once in the alliance’s history, since the attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001. More than 1,100 non-U.S. military personnel were killed in the ensuing U.S. war in Afghanistan with allied participation.
Despite these allies’ efforts, President Trump has long questioned whether NATO allies would be “there” if the United States “needed them,” baselessly claiming in January that NATO forces were “some distance away” from the front lines in Afghanistan. Since the United States and Israel began their war against Iran on February 28, the president has continued to express skepticism about the alliance.
“It was actually hard to believe, except I wasn’t there. And I didn’t have a big sale. I just said, ‘Hey,’ I didn’t really push it. I just think it should be automatic,” Trump told the Telegraph.
“We have automatically gone there, including Ukraine,” he said. “Ukraine was not our problem. This was a test. We were there for them and we always would have been there for them. They were not there for us.”
The United States has provided military intelligence to Ukraine and allowed Europe to purchase American weapons on Kiev’s behalf, but Washington has not approved any new military or financial aid to Ukraine since President Joe Biden took office.
In a recent broadside against NATO, President Trump singled out British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Starmer initially rejected the president’s request to use British military bases for offensive operations against Iran, which Britain deemed illegal. But Mr Starmer joined the defense against Iranian retaliation after attacks on British military assets in the Middle East.
In an interview with the Telegraph, Trump mocked Britain’s warship fleet, saying: “We don’t even have a navy. We have aircraft carriers that are too old to function.”
Referring to clean energy projects, Trump added: “I’m not going to tell him what to do. He can do whatever he wants. It doesn’t matter. All Starmer wants is expensive windmills that will drive energy prices through the roof.”
Asked about President Trump’s recent comments, Starmer stressed that NATO remains “the single most effective military alliance the world has ever seen.” The Prime Minister reiterated that Britain would not be “drawn into” war with Iran.
