President Trump suggested in an interview with the British newspaper The Telegraph that he is actively weighing a U.S. withdrawal from NATO over its refusal to support American military operations against Iran.

“Oh yes, I would say it’s beyond reconsideration,” Trump told the right-leaning outlet when asked whether he would reconsider U.S. membership after the war. “I was never swayed by NATO. I always knew they were a paper tiger, and Putin knows that too, by the way.”

NATO members have declined to deploy military assets to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the critical oil shipping lane Iran effectively shut after the U.S. and Israel launched their military campaign on February 28. Trump on Tuesday had gone further on Truth Social, telling allies struggling with fuel shortages to “build up some delayed courage, go to the Strait, and just TAKE IT,” and warning: “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.”

In the Telegraph interview, Trump expanded that grievance into a broader indictment of the alliance’s value. “Beyond not being there, it was actually hard to believe,” he said. He drew a contrast with U.S. support for allies in past conflicts. “We’ve been there automatically, including Ukraine. Ukraine wasn’t our problem. It was a test, and we were there for them. They weren’t there for us.”

Article 5 of the NATO charter — its collective defense clause — has been invoked once, after the September 11 attacks, and more than 1,100 non-American allied troops were killed in the subsequent war in Afghanistan. Trump has repeatedly claimed that NATO allies “stayed a little back” from frontlines in that conflict.

Trump reserved particular contempt for British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who refused a U.S. request to use British military bases for offensive operations against Iran. Starmer did authorize British forces to participate in defensive operations after assets in the region came under Iranian attack.

In the interview, Trump mocked Britain’s military capacity directly. “You don’t even have a navy. You’re too old and had aircraft carriers that didn’t work,” he said. He also dismissed Starmer’s domestic agenda: “All Starmer wants is costly windmills that are driving your energy prices through the roof.”

Starmer, responding to Trump’s comments, defended the alliance. “NATO remains the single most effective military alliance the world has ever seen,” he said, reiterating that Britain would not “get dragged into” the Iran war.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)