Donald Trump has said he is “absolutely” considering withdrawing the United States from Nato, escalating his long-standing criticism of the alliance after allies refused to join the US-Israeli war against Iran. The president told Reuters on Wednesday that he was “absolutely without question” considering the move, and earlier told the Telegraph that the matter was “beyond reconsideration”. He signalled he would express his disgust for Nato in an address to the nation scheduled for Wednesday evening.
Trump launched the war on Iran on 28 February in partnership with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, without consulting Nato allies. More than a month into the conflict, there is no sign of the regime change or collapse that Trump and Netanyahu had hoped for. Tehran’s response—closing the Strait of Hormuz—has caused an oil price surge and a worldwide shortage of fertiliser and other essential goods, threatening a global recession.
Trump has swung between claiming a negotiated end is imminent and threatening a ground assault, while calling on US allies to join the fight and force the strait back open. None of Washington’s traditional partners have come forward. Some European allies have declared the US-Israeli attack illegal and several have withheld overflight rights and use of bases on their territory. Trump has lashed out at European capitals, denouncing them as “cowards” and expressing particular contempt for the UK, telling the Telegraph: “You don’t even have a navy. You’re too old and had aircraft carriers that didn’t work.”
Ivo Daalder, US permanent representative at Nato headquarters from 2009 to 2013, said the serious damage to the alliance had already been done. “This is by far the worst crisis Nato has ever confronted. Military alliances are, at their core, based on trust: the confidence that if I am attacked, you will come help defend,” he wrote in an online commentary. “It’s hard to see how any European country will now be able and willing to trust the United States to come to its defence.”
The anti-Nato rhetoric has been echoed by US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who was a staunch supporter of the alliance when he was a senator. Rubio told Fox News: “We are going to have to re-examine whether or not this alliance, that has served this country well for a while, is still serving that purpose or has now become a one-way street.” UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has shrugged off the administration’s jibes as “noise”, insisting that “Nato is the single most effective military alliance the world has ever seen” and restating that “this is not our war, and we’re not going to get dragged into it”.
