President Donald Trump declared Wednesday that the United States is actively weighing a withdrawal from NATO, calling the 77-year-old military alliance a “paper tiger” and saying the question of American membership has moved “beyond reconsideration.”
Trump made the remarks in an interview with The Daily Telegraph, published April 1, as his administration entered its second month of military operations against Iran. The statement marks the most direct threat yet to an alliance that has anchored Western collective defense since the end of World War II.
“I was never swayed by NATO. I always knew they were a paper tiger, and Putin knows that too, by the way,” Trump told the newspaper.
The comments follow weeks of friction between Washington and European capitals over the Iran conflict, which the US and Israel launched on February 28 without consulting NATO partners. Several allied governments have since pushed back against American requests for operational support.
Spain refused to allow the US to use its territory as a staging ground for strikes, Germany’s defense minister described the war as “not our war,” and France blocked US military supply flights to Israel from crossing its airspace.
Trump framed allied inaction as a betrayal, pointing to American backing for Europe during the Russia-Ukraine war. “We’ve been there automatically, including Ukraine. Ukraine wasn’t our problem. It was a test, and we were there for them,” he said. “They weren’t there for us.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio reinforced the threat Monday, telling Al Jazeera that Washington would have to “re-examine” its relationship with NATO once hostilities end. Rubio questioned whether an arrangement in which the US commits to defending Europe but is denied basing rights in return still serves American interests.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he would not choose between Washington and the continent, pledging to act in Britain’s national interest regardless of pressure from either side. Trump, in turn, dismissed Starmer’s defense posture and took a shot at the Royal Navy’s capabilities.
Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty — the alliance’s collective defense clause — obligates members to treat an armed attack against one ally as an attack against all. It says nothing about supporting offensive operations that a member state initiates. NATO has invoked Article 5 exactly once in its history, after the September 11 attacks — and even then, the treaty left each ally free to determine its own form of contribution.
The European position follows that same logic: they signed up to defend the US if attacked, not to enable a war Washington and Jerusalem launched without allied consultation.
Spanish Defense Minister Margarita Robles made the argument explicitly, calling Madrid’s refusal “part of the decision not to participate in or contribute to a war which was initiated unilaterally and against international law.”
Trump and Rubio have framed the refusals as a betrayal of alliance obligations — but by the treaty’s own terms, no such obligation applies to offensive operations a member state starts.
The standoff is the most serious transatlantic rupture since France and Germany refused to support the 2003 Iraq invasion. Except this time, the friction is also straining the alliance’s forward defense posture in Europe while Russia’s war in Ukraine continues.
Trump is scheduled to address the nation at 9 p.m. ET on Wednesday to deliver an update on the war.
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