WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Tuesday NATO and most other allies have rejected his calls to help secure the Strait of Hormuz, grousing that he has been unable to rally support behind his war of choice in Iran that he insists he’s conducting for the good of the world, even if it doesn’t appreciate his effort.
Trump, who has been pressing allies to help safeguard the critical waterway to ease a chokepoint on the region’s oil exports, fumed that the U.S. is not getting support “despite the fact that we helped” NATO “so much,” and said that it was in allies’ interest to prevent Iran from securing a nuclear weapon.
Trump’s indignant response to allies’ refusal to get involved in the war underscored that the conflict — now in its third week and causing reverberations across the global economy — is one the international community is looking to the U.S. leader to sort out himself after he launched it without consultation.
“You would have thought they would have said, ‘We’d love to send a couple of minesweepers.’ That’s not a big deal,” Trump said. “It doesn’t cost very much money. But they didn’t do that.”
While he expressed resentment at traditional U.S. allies, Trump insisted he’s OK with the solidifying dynamic of the conflict, which, for better or worse, will rest largely on his shoulders alone.
While Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been urging him on this path for months, Trump has increasingly made the case that the road to conflict was chosen by one man. It started based on what Trump described as a “feeling” about the threat posed by Iran, and he has said it will end when his gut says it’s time.
“We don’t need any help, actually,” Trump told reporters as he hosted Ireland’s Prime Minister Micheál Martin for a St. Patrick’s Day visit to the White House.
Trump complained that NATO allies have counted on tens of billions of dollars in U.S. backing for Ukraine to fend off Russia’s invasion, but could not return the favor to help the U.S. and Israel in its efforts to defang Iran, which has posed a threat to the Middle East and beyond for years. The U.S., he added, has spent hundreds of billions fortifying Europe and Asian defenses.
Trump has had a hot-and-cold relationship with the alliance, a linchpin of the post World War II national security framework that he believes had become too dependent on the U.S. Trump has hammered bloc members for spending too little and even questioned U.S. commitment to the mutual defense statute in NATO’s founding treaty that states an attack on one member is considered an attack on all.
NATO exists as a defensive alliance, not an offensive one, and NATO has said it has no plans to get involved in the U.S.-led war with Iran. However, NATO troops did deploy for 18 years to Afghanistan and its 2011 air campaign helped topple Libya’s late leader Moammar Gadhafi.
“We will protect them, but they will do nothing for us, in particular, in a time of need,” Trump said on social media.
Trump directed most of his pique at NATO
Trump noted that allies in Japan, Australia, and South Korea — as well as China — have rejected his calls to get involved in helping secure the strait, the critical waterway through which, in typical times, about 20% of the world’s crude oil passes each day. Asia is the most exposed to the trade disruption because it relies heavily on imported fuel, much of which is shipped through the strait.
The European Union’s top diplomat pushed back at Trump, saying the 27-nation bloc does not want to be dragged into the U.S.-Israel war on Iran and broadly rejected Trump’s demand to send warships to the Straits of Hormuz.
“This is not Europe’s war. We didn’t start the war. We were not consulted,” EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on Tuesday, a day after chairing talks among the member countries about Trump’s warship demand.
“We don’t know what are the objectives of this war,” Kallas said. “The member states do not have the wish to be dragged into this.”
Trump called the moment a “great test” for NATO and said the alliance was making “a very foolish mistake” by rejecting him.
Trump was asked by a reporter if he was rethinking the U.S. relationship with NATO in light of the response to the Iran war — or perhaps even pondering getting out of the military alliance.
“It’s certainly something that we should think about. I don’t need Congress for that decision,” Trump said. He added, “I have nothing currently in mind, but I’m not exactly thrilled.”
It’s debatable if Trump could pull out of NATO on his own. Congress passed a law in 2023 that requires congressional authorization to leave the military alliance. Experts have said Trump could try to negotiate loopholes, perhaps citing presidential authority over foreign policy, to try to get around the law.
Trump’s position that America’s longstanding support for NATO should be reciprocated now that the U.S. has asked for help in Iran is being met with stiff resistance.
French President Emmanuel Macron said his country is ready to help secure the Strait of Hormuz but only as part of a mission separate from the current Middle East war.
“We are not a party to the conflict, and therefore France will never take part in operations to reopen or liberate the Strait of Hormuz,” Macron said.
Trump was dismissive of Macron’s position. “Well, he’ll be out of office very soon,” Trump said of the French president, whose second five-year term is scheduled to end in May 2027.
Still, while Trump may have decided that the U.S. no longer needs outside military assistance to secure the strait, the State Department has reached out to numerous countries seeking their support in isolating Iran by designating the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Hezbollah as terrorist organizations, actions that would result in sanctions against those groups and their members.
A cable sent to all U.S. diplomatic missions on Monday asked American diplomats based in countries that have not yet made such designations to act quickly to do so given the widespread retaliation for the U. S-Israeli military operation that Iran has launched over the past two weeks.
“Now is the time for other nations to take concrete action against Iran, including by designating the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and its proxy. Hezbollah, as terrorist organizations,” said the cable, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press.
AP writers Matthew Lee in Washington, Sylvie Corbet in Paris, and Lorne Cook in Brussels contributed reporting.
