Trump suggests US is considering leaving ‘paper tiger’ NATO

By Christian Edwards

(CNN) — 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.

“Beyond not being there, it was actually hard to believe. And I didn’t do a big sale. I just said, ‘Hey,’ you know, I didn’t insist too much. I just think it should be automatic,” Trump told The Telegraph.

“We’ve been there automatically, including Ukraine,” he said. “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.”

Although the US provides some military intelligence to Ukraine and allows Europe to purchase American weapons on Kyiv’s behalf, the US government has not authorized a new package of military or financial support to Ukraine since Joe Biden’s presidency.

In his recent broadsides against NATO, Trump has singled out British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Starmer initially refused the president’s request to use British military bases in offensive operations against Iran, which Britain had judged to be illegal. Starmer did, however, join the defense against Iran’s retaliation after British military assets in the Middle East came under attack.

In the Telegraph interview, Trump mocked Britain’s fleet of warships, saying: “You don’t even have a navy. You’re too old and had aircraft carriers that didn’t work.”

“I’m not going to tell him what to do. He can do whatever he wants. It doesn’t matter. All Starmer wants is costly windmills that are driving your energy prices through the roof,” Trump added, referring to clean energy projects.

Asked about Trump’s latest comments, Starmer stressed that NATO remains “the single most effective military alliance the world has ever seen.” He reiterated that Britain will not “get dragged into” the war with Iran.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.