The White House is considering a plan to punish some members of the NATO alliance that President Trump thinks were unhelpful to the U.S. and Israel during the Iran war, according to administration officials.
The proposal would involve moving U.S. troops out of North Atlantic Treaty Organization member countries deemed unhelpful to the Iran war effort and stationing them in countries that were more supportive. The proposal would fall far short of President Trump’s recent threats to fully withdraw the U.S. from the alliance, which by law he can’t do without Congress.
The plan, which has circulated and gained support among senior administration officials in recent weeks, is early in conception and one of several the White House is discussing to punish NATO. It underscores the growing rift between the Trump administration and European allies following the president’s decision to launch the war with Iran.
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte traveled Wednesday to Washington to meet with Trump. Rutte has sought to deepen ties with Trump despite tensions in the trans-Atlantic alliance and was among those who persuaded him not to take over Greenland .
“It’s quite sad that NATO turned their backs on the American people over the last six weeks when it’s the American people who have been funding their defense,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Wednesday. She said Trump planned to have a very “frank and candid conversation” with Rutte.
On Wednesday evening, Trump wrote on Truth Social that “NATO wasn’t there when we needed them, and they won’t be there if we need them again.”
The U.S. has around 84,000 troops stationed across Europe, though the exact number varies from military exercises and rotational deployments. U.S. bases in Europe serve as a critical hub of global U.S. military operations, as well as provide an economic boon to the host country through investment. Bases in Eastern Europe also serve as a deterrent against Russia.
When asked for comment, the White House referred to recent statements made by Secretary of State Marco Rubio criticizing NATO countries for failing to be more helpful to the U.S. with the war in Iran.
It couldn’t be determined which countries would lose troops, yet a number of alliance members have run afoul of Trump since he returned to office and more recently attracted his ire by objecting to the war in Iran.
Spain—the only NATO country that hasn’t indicated it would spend 5% of its GDP on defense—blocked U.S. planes involved in the Iran operation from using its airspace. Administration officials are also frustrated with Germany after top officials criticized the war, though Germany serves as one of the largest and most important hubs for the U.S. military to support its operations in the Middle East.
Italy also briefly blocked the U.S. use of an air base in Sicily, and the French government agreed to only allow the U.S. to use a base in southern France after it guaranteed planes not involved in Iran strikes would land there.
Beyond repositioning troops, the plan could also involve closing a U.S. base in at least one of the European countries, possibly Spain or Germany, according to the two administration officials.
Countries that could benefit because they are viewed as supportive include Poland, Romania, Lithuania and Greece, the officials said. The Eastern European countries have some of the highest defense-spending rates in the alliance and were some of the first to signal they would support an international coalition to monitor the Strait of Hormuz. After war broke out, Romania quickly approved U.S. requests to allow its bases to be used by the U.S. Air Force.
The plan could result in putting more U.S. troops closer to the Russian border, an outcome likely to antagonize Moscow.
Trump said Monday he was “very disappointed” with NATO and that their unwillingness to support the U.S. on the Iran war is “a mark on NATO that will never disappear.” He has frequently lashed out at the alliance and mused to aides in recent weeks about quitting the alliance altogether.
Last month he posted to his Truth Social platform that the member countries had done nothing to help in the war with Iran and added “U.S.A. NEEDS NOTHING FROM NATO.”
Senior European officials counter that they were never consulted on the war in advance to begin with, making it difficult to coordinate military response in the conflict’s first days. Two of NATO’s defense ministers, from Estonia and Italy, became stranded in Dubai when the U.S. launched the war as the United Arab Emirates closed down its commercial airspace.
The Iran war is the latest in a series of diplomatic crises that the alliance has faced since Trump came into office. Trump angered allies over steep tariffs on Europe and his engagement with Russian President Vladimir Putin over efforts to broker peace in Ukraine. Trump also triggered an extraordinary diplomatic crisis with NATO ally Denmark over his efforts to annex Greenland, an Arctic island in the Danish kingdom.
During his first term in 2020, Trump ordered the withdrawal of around 12,000 troops from Germany, but President Joe Biden reversed the decision after taking office in 2021.
Write to Annie Linskey at annie.linskey@wsj.com and Robbie Gramer at robbie.gramer@wsj.com
