Trump says seriously weighing bolting NATO over allies’ failure to join Iran war

US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he is seriously weighing leaving the NATO alliance after it didn’t join the US-Israeli campaign against Iran or work to reopen the strategic Strait of Hormuz.

“Oh yes, I would say [it’s] beyond reconsideration,” he told 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 argued that the US did its part to protect Ukraine, even though it wasn’t America’s problem.

“We’ve been there automatically, including Ukraine,” said 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 blasted 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.”

In response to Trump’s comments, Starmer called NATO “the single most effective military alliance the world has ever seen.”

“It has kept us safe for many decades, and we are fully committed to NATO,” Starmer told a press conference.

While Trump may desire to pull the US out of NATO, a law passed by Congress in 2023 prohibits a president from doing so unilaterally, without a two-thirds vote in the Senate or a joint act of Congress. That legislation was championed by Trump’s now-secretary of state Marco Rubio when he was in the Senate.

Trump has lashed out at NATO throughout the campaign, accusing it of doing nothing to help the war effort. On Tuesday, Trump singled out Britain and France as unhelpful in the month-long war that has roiled global markets, driven up energy prices, and seen Iran effectively close oil tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.

In a Truth Social post this week, Trump said he told allies who have been unwilling to do more to support the US war effort: “You’ll have to start learning how to fight for yourself, the USA. won’t be there to help you anymore, just like you weren’t there for us. The hard part is done. Go get your own oil!”

In March, he wrote, “Without the USA, NATO IS A PAPER TIGER! They didn’t want to join the fight to stop a Nuclear Powered Iran. Now that fight is Militarily WON, with very little danger for them.”

Trump’s comments on Wednesday came hours after similar remarks by Rubio, who also said that the US “is going to have to reexamine” its relationship with NATO once the war against Iran has concluded, during an interview with Fox News.

Starmer told reporters on Wednesday that Britain will this week hold a meeting of about 35 countries to discuss how to reopen the Straight of Hormuz.

UK Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper will host the discussions, Starmer told reporters.

The meeting will “assess all viable diplomatic and political measures that we can take to restore freedom of navigation, guarantee the safety of trapped ships and seafarers and resume the movement of vital commodities,” Starmer said.

“Following that meeting, we will also convene our military planners to look at how we can marshal our capabilities and make the strait accessible and safe after the fighting has stopped,” he added.

The discussions will include countries that recently signed a statement saying they were ready “to contribute to appropriate efforts to ensure safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz,” Starmer said.

Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the Netherlands are among those to have signed it.

“I do have to level with people on this. This (reopening) will not be easy,” Starmer said.