The Telegraph<\/a>, Trump argued the alliance has become a \u201cone-way street,\u201d with the United States expected to defend Europe while allies decline to support American operations.<\/p>\nThe catalyst for this potential divorce is the refusal of European allies to support the U.S.-led effort to reopen the Strait of Hormuz\u2014a vital artery for 20% of the world\u2019s oil\u2014which has been temporarily shuttered by Tehran.<\/p>\n
Asked whether he would reconsider U.S. membership after the war with Iran is over, Trump did not hedge.<\/p>\n
\u201cOh yes, I would say beyond reconsideration,\u201d he said. \u201cI was never swayed by NATO. I always knew they were a paper tiger, and Putin knows that too, by the way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump pointed directly to European reluctance to support efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a vital artery for 20% of the world\u2019s oil that has been shuttered by Iran, as evidence that the alliance is failing, and noted that while the United States has \u201cautomatically\u201d stood by Europe, including in non-member states like Ukraine, the favor has not been returned.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey weren\u2019t there for us,\u201d Trump remarked, specifically lambasting UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer for a lack of naval support.<\/p>\n
Senior administration officials are now echoing the president\u2019s frustration.<\/p>\n
Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned that continued U.S. participation in NATO cannot be taken for granted if allies explect protection while limiting American military flexibility.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf NATO is just about us defending Europe if they\u2019re attacked but then denying us basing rights when we need them, that\u2019s not a very good arrangement,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth went further, argining the war has exposed a fundamental imbalance.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t have much of an alliance if you have countries that are not willing to stand with you when you need them,\u201d Hegseth stated.<\/p>\n
The statements point to a hardening of the administration\u2019s NATO stance. Sources suggest the White House is eyeing a model that would block delinquent or uncooperative members from decision-making and is revisiting plans to withdraw troops from Germany.<\/p>\n
As the U.S. and Israel continue air strikes against Iran\u2019s nuclear program, the message from Washington is clear: the era of the American \u201cblank check\u201d for European security is over. If NATO will not serve as a platform for mutual security, President Trump appears ready to walk away from the table entirely.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Signaling a seismic shift in the post-WWII global order, President Donald Trump said he is \u201cstrongly considering\u201d withdrawing the United States from NATO, delivering one of his clearest warnings that Washington may no longer be willing to underwrite European security without reciprocal support. Delivered in a characteristically blunt interview with\u00a0The Telegraph, Trump argued the alliance […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22566,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-22565","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-current-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22565"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22565\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}