Trump says he’s seriously weighing bolting ‘paper tiger’ NATO after it didn’t join Iran campaign

Lazar Berman is The Times of Israel's diplomatic reporter

US President Donald Trump answers questions from reporters after signing an executive order in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, March 31, 2026. (AP/Alex Brandon)
US President Donald Trump answers questions from reporters after signing an executive order in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, March 31, 2026. (AP/Alex Brandon)

US President Donald Trump says he is seriously weighing leaving the NATO alliance after it didn’t join the US-Israeli campaign again Iran.

“Oh yes, I would say [it’s] beyond reconsideration,” he tells UK newspaper The Telegraph. “I was never swayed by NATO. I always knew they were a paper tiger, and Putin knows that too, by the way.”

He argues that the US did its part to protect Ukraine, even though it wasn’t America’s problem.

“We’ve been there automatically, including Ukraine,” says Trump, who has aired repeated skepticism about the trans-Atlantic military alliance. “Ukraine wasn’t our problem. It was a test, and we were there for them, and we would always have been there for them. They weren’t there for us.”

He also blasts UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and British military capabilities: “You don’t even have a navy. You’re too old and had aircraft carriers that didn’t work.”

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