Trump says he's considering NATO exit amid rift over Iran war
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U.S. President Donald Trump said he is strongly considering pulling the U.S. from NATO, according to an interview with the Telegraph published on April 1.
The comments come as top U.S. officials increasingly voice frustration with their NATO allies over their refusal to join the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran.
Asked by the Telegraph whether he would reconsider the U.S. membership in the alliance after the war, Trump said: "Oh yes, I would say (it's) beyond reconsideration. I was never swayed by NATO."
The U.S. president, a long-time critic of the alliance, went on to call NATO a "paper tiger" and said Russian President Vladimir Putin shares that opinion.
Trump also noted that the U.S. has "been there" for the alliance when it came to the Russia-Ukraine war.
"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," Trump told the Telegraph.
The Trump administration ended nearly all new aid allocations to Ukraine, passing the financial burden of supporting Kyiv to European allies. The U.S. still provides intelligence support to Ukraine and sells hard-to-replace equipment, such as Patriot interceptors, via NATO.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Fox News on March 31 that the U.S. would "reexamine" its relationship with NATO after the allies did not assist Washington in the Middle East.
The U.S.-Iran war, ongoing for over a month, has led to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and driven a global surge in oil and gas prices.
European allies have rejected Trump's calls to send warships to reopen the strait, and some have closed their airspace to U.S. aircraft involved in the military operation.
Washington has not consulted its European partners before the operation, and the NATO collective defense principle does not require partners to join offensive wars.
"Trump is escalating an old pattern that other NATO leaders should be familiar with by now," Jörn Fleck, senior director with the Europe Center at the Atlantic Council, told the Kyiv Independent earlier this week.
According to the expert, "European leaders would be well advised to avoid getting drawn in by provocations or insinuations over NATO and Article 5."
Others noted that Trump's rhetoric often shifts and has little "staying power."
Jamie Shea, a security expert and a retired NATO official, nevertheless warned that though Trump's "changes his messages frequently, they send the wrong signals to Russia and encourage the Kremlin in its attempts to undermine and challenge NATO."
Trump has questioned the value of the alliance since before his second term, criticizing other members for not spending enough on their defense.
Under pressure from Trump, all NATO members met the 2% of GDP defense spending goal last year and agreed to raise that benchmark to 5%.
In December 2023, the U.S. Congress passed a bill — advocated by then-Senator Rubio — barring any U.S. president from unilaterally withdrawing from NATO without congressional approval.
