President Donald Trump has said that withdrawing the United States from NATO is “beyond reconsideration,” in remarks to the british newspaper Daily Telegraph.
The comments came after NATO partners refused Trump’s demand to send warships to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Tehran has effectively closed for weeks now the strategic waterway through which roughly 20% of the world’s oil typically passes, sending global energy prices spiraling and raising fears of a broader economic crisis.
Asked whether he would reconsider U.S. membership of the alliance in light of the conflict, Trump was unequivocal. “Oh yes, I would say [it’s] beyond reconsideration,” he told the Telegraph. “I was never swayed by NATO. I always knew they were a paper tiger, and Putin knows that too, by the way.”
Trump framed the alliance’s refusal to act as a betrayal, drawing a pointed comparison to U.S. support for Ukraine. “Beyond not being there, it was actually hard to believe,” he said. “We’ve been there automatically, including Ukraine. 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.”
Not the first time — but perhaps the most serious
The threat is not new. During his first term, Trump came close to acting on similar warnings. Former NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg later wrote in his memoir that there were clear signs Trump had been preparing to leave the alliance. It didn’t happen. But the BBC notes that Trump is angrier now, presiding over a war that appears to be expanding despite his administration’s assurances, and facing allies who stayed on the sidelines of a conflict nobody consulted them on.
That estrangement cuts both ways. Some allies, knowing that Washington’s patience is finite, have quietly stepped up on specific fronts — supporting Arab partners, working to keep the Strait of Hormuz open — calculating that being useful is better than being ignored. The BBC suggests the crisis will push Europe to accelerate its own defense buildup regardless of what Trump decides. But that process takes years, and for now the brute fact of American military power remains, as the BBC puts it, an asset that matters “immensely.” NATO’s current chief Mark Rutte, who has cultivated a reputation as the one man who can manage Trump, faces perhaps his toughest test yet in keeping the U.S. president at the table.
A legal floor — for now
Any withdrawal would face a significant obstacle. In 2023, Congress passed legislation barring the president from leaving NATO without Senate approval or an act of Congress — a law designed specifically to take the decision out of any single administration’s hands.
Sources: Daily Telegraph, BBC, Reuters
