President Donald Trump openly questioned the U.S. mutual defense commitment to NATO this Friday, stating that the alliance "wasn't there for us" during the conflict with Iran and suggesting that Washington might not come to the defense of its allies in the future.
The statements, released by the State Department on X, come in the context of the Epic Fury Operation, launched on February 28 by the U.S. and Israel against Iranian nuclear and military infrastructure without prior consultation with European allies.
"I believe NATO made a terrible mistake when they didn't send even a small amount of military equipment, when they didn't even acknowledge what we were doing for the world by standing up to Iran," Trump stated.
The leader noted that the U.S. spends "hundreds of billions of dollars a year" on the alliance to protect its members and posed a rhetorical question that analysts interpreted as a direct threat to the NATO Article 5: "Why would we be there for them if they are not there for us?"
"We would always have been there for them. But based on their actions, I guess we don’t have to be, right?" she added.
The transatlantic fracture deepened after the operation began, which included more than 6,500 combat flights and strikes on over 7,000 Iranian targets.
Iran responded by closing the Strait of Hormuz, through which approximately 20% of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas transits, and on March 4 declared "full control" of the maritime passage.
Trump demanded that NATO allies send warships to help reopen the strait, but most conditioned their participation on a prior ceasefire.
The president's rhetorical escalation has been sustained throughout March. On the 16th, he warned allies of a "very bad future"; and on the 20th, he called them "cowards" on Truth Social. The president stated that "without the U.S., NATO is a paper tiger." On the 26th, he declared that the U.S. "doesn't need anything from NATO."
Twenty-two countries, including the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Japan, and Canada, signed a statement urging Iran to reopen the strait, but without committing to active naval forces, a response that Trump deemed insufficient.
The NATO Secretary General, Mark Rutte, has attempted to maintain the cohesion of the alliance by publicly praising Trump while seeking internal diplomatic solutions.
This Friday, Trump also extended the pause on attacks against Iranian energy infrastructure for ten days, until April 6, citing gestures from Iran such as the passage of oil tankers through the strait.
Filed under: