President Donald Trump suggested in an interview with a British newspaper that he’s considering withdrawing the US from NATO after repeatedly criticizing a lack of support from members for the Iran war.
Asked by the right-leaning Telegraph if he would reconsider the US’ membership of NATO after the war, Trump said: “Oh yes, I would say (it’s) beyond reconsideration… I was never swayed by NATO. I always knew they were a paper tiger, and (Russian President Vladimir) Putin knows that too, by the way.”
Members of NATO, a defensive military alliance, have been reluctant to deploy military assets to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial oil shipping lane that Iran effectively closed in response to the US and Israel attacks.
Trump’s comments, reported Wednesday, are the latest in a series of rebukes he has issued to NATO members over not “being there” for the US. On Tuesday, he told countries struggling to source jet fuel due to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz to “build up some delayed courage, go to the Strait, and just TAKE IT.”
“You’ll have to start learning how to fight for yourself, the U.S.A. won’t be there to help you anymore, just like you weren’t there for us,” the president wrote on Truth Social.
Trump’s position has been puzzling to members of NATO, which is an alliance based on the principle of collective defense. Article 5, which states that an attack on one is an attack on all, has only been invoked once in the alliance’s history, following the September 11, 2001, attacks on the US. More than 1,100 non-US troops were killed after allies joined the US’ ensuing war in Afghanistan.
Despite those allied efforts, Trump has long questioned whether NATO allies would “be there” if the US “ever needed them,” baselessly claiming in January that NATO troops “stayed a little back” from the frontlines in Afghanistan. The president has continued to voice skepticism about the alliance since the US and Israel launched the war against Iran on February 28.
Credit: cnn.com
