President Donald Trump suggested in an interview with a British newspaper that heโs considering withdrawing the US from NATO after repeatedly criticizing a lack of support from members for the Iran war.
Asked by the right-leaning Telegraph Wednesday if he would reconsider the USโ membership of NATO after the war, Trump said: โOh yes, I wouldBreaking: Trump Threatens NATO Exit Amid Iran War Dispute
say (itโs) beyond reconsiderationโฆ I was never swayed by NATO. I always knew they were a paper tiger, and (Russian President Vladimir) Putin knows that too, by the way.โ
Members of NATO, a defensive military alliance, have been reluctant to deploy military assets to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial oil shipping lane that Iran effectively closed in response to the US and Israel attacks.
Trumpโs comments, reported Wednesday, are the latest in a series of rebukes he has issued to NATO members over not โbeing thereโ for the US. On Tuesday, he told countries struggling to source jet fuel due to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz to โbuild up some delayed courage, go to the Strait, and just TAKE IT.โ
โYouโll have to start learning how to fight for yourself, the U.S.A. wonโt be there to help you anymore, just like you werenโt there for us,โ the president wrote on Truth Social.
Trumpโs position has been puzzling to members of NATO, which is an alliance based on the principle of collective defense. Article 5, which states that an attack on one is an attack on all, has only been invoked once in the allianceโs history, following the September 11, 2001, attacks on the US. More than 1,100 non-US troops were killed after allies joined the USโ ensuing war in Afghanistan.
Despite those allied efforts, Trump has long questioned whether NATO allies would โbe thereโ if the US โever needed them,โ baselessly claiming in January that NATO troops โstayed a little backโ from the frontlines in Afghanistan. The president has continued to voice skepticism about the alliance since the US and Israel launched the war against Iran on February 28.
โBeyond not being there, it was actually hard to believe. And I didnโt do a big sale. I just said, โHey,โ you know, I didnโt insist too much. I just think it should be automatic,โ Trump told The Telegraph.
โWeโve been there automatically, including Ukraine,โ he said. โUkraine wasnโt our problem. It was a test, and we were there for them, and we would always have been there for them. They werenโt there for us.โ
Although the US provides some military intelligence to Ukraine and allows Europe to purchase American weapons on Kyivโs behalf, the US government has not authorized a new package of military or financial support to Ukraine since Joe Bidenโs presidency.
In his recent broadsides against NATO, Trump has singled out British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Starmer initially refused the presidentโs request to use British military bases in offensive operations against Iran, which Britain had judged to be illegal. Starmer did, however, join the defense against Iranโs retaliation after British military assets in the Middle East came under attack.
In the Telegraph interview, Trump mocked Britainโs fleet of warships, saying: โYou donโt even have a navy. Youโre too old and had aircraft carriers that didnโt work.โ
โIโm not going to tell him what to do. He can do whatever he wants. It doesnโt matter. All Starmer wants is costly windmills that are driving your energy prices through the roof,โ Trump added, referring to clean energy projects.
Asked about Trumpโs latest comments, Starmer stressed that NATO remains โthe single most effective military alliance the world has ever seen.โ He reiterated that Britain will not โget dragged intoโ the war with Iran.
