Trump floats NATO exit amid Iran war tensions with Europe over Strait

Jill Lawless reported that Trump’s latest remarks put fresh focus on NATO at the same time European governments face domestic pressure over the Iran conflict and the risks to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. The Associated Press reported that Trump raised NATO directly during a private White House lunch for the upcoming Easter holiday that was posted online by a Business Insider reporter, saying “NATO treated us very badly” and warning that the alliance would “be treating us badly again” if the United States ever needed it.

In an interview with The Telegraph published Wednesday, Trump also suggested he could potentially try to leave NATO. Later, during a televised address to the American people about the Iran war, Trump avoided mentioning NATO by name but emphasized the strait’s importance to oil supplies and argued that countries that depend on the flow “must grab it and cherish it” because the United States would not, the AP reported.

The rift comes amid a broader effort by leaders to manage alliance tensions and keep cooperation intact. The AP reported that NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte is scheduled to visit Washington next week, with a White House official confirming the trip but speaking on condition of anonymity because it was not yet formally announced. In London, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said his government was “fully committed to NATO” and called it “the single most effective military alliance the world has ever seen,” the AP said.

U.S. congressional leaders also sought to reinforce support for the alliance. Before Trump’s speech Wednesday, Sen. Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, and Sen. Chris Coons, a Delaware Democrat, issued a joint statement saying “NATO is the most successful military alliance in history” and stressing that the Senate “will continue to support the alliance for the peace and protection it provides” to the United States, Europe and the world, according to the AP report.

The AP said that Trump’s NATO comments intersect with an immediate practical issue: security and disruption in the Strait of Hormuz, through which about one-fifth of the world’s oil passes. Many European leaders, the AP reported, have felt political pressure over the Iran war, which has faced opposition in their countries and has sent petroleum prices soaring as Iran effectively shut the strait. The AP reported that the U.K. is working on plans that could help assuage Trump, and that Starmer said military planners would work on a postwar security plan for the strait.

The dispute also runs into the legal and procedural limits on how quickly a NATO exit could occur. The AP reported that Congress passed legislation in 2023 that would prevent any president from pulling out of NATO without congressional approval. It noted that during Trump’s first term, his administration had insisted the president had authority to withdraw on his own, and it said it remains unclear whether Trump would challenge the new law. The AP also said the NATO provision was championed at the time by Trump’s secretary of state, Marco Rubio, who was a Florida senator then.

European planning is continuing even as tensions with Washington surface. The AP reported that on Thursday, U.K. Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper will host a virtual meeting of 35 countries that have signed up to help ensure security for shipping in the strait after the fighting ends. The Associated Press also reported criticism of Trump’s posture from a senior NATO context adviser: Iulia-Sabina Joja, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, alluded to Trump’s earlier Tuesday exhortation for allies to “go get your own oil” in a social media post and said it wasn’t America’s job to secure the strait.

The background for NATO’s potential role is tied to the alliance’s treaty structure and the way it makes decisions. NATO is built on Article 5, which pledges that an attack on any one member will be met with a response from them all, the AP reported. As the Iran war has spread, missiles and drones have been fired toward NATO member Turkey and a British military base on Cyprus, fueling speculation about what might prompt NATO to trigger its collective security guarantee. The AP said the alliance has not intervened or signaled any plan to do so, and it reported that Rutte has been focusing mostly on the Russia-Ukraine war because Ukraine borders four NATO countries.

The AP said NATO operates by consensus, and that all 32 countries must agree for the alliance to make decisions, meaning no single member—such as Turkey or the U.K.—can trigger Article 5 alone. In the AP’s account, that consensus requirement, combined with fraying political will over the Iran conflict, underscores why Trump’s dissatisfaction could have potentially dangerous consequences if it weakens deterrence at a moment when NATO’s unity is most likely to be tested.