Trump Threatens to Sever Ties With NATO Over Iran Split: ‘They Weren’t There for Us’

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President Donald Trump said he is weighing whether to withdraw the United States from NATO, escalating tensions with European allies after they refused to support his war effort against Iran.

In a phone interview with The Telegraph published on Wednesday, the president repeated his jab that NATO was a “paper tiger” and cast serious doubt on America’s future with the alliance.

Asked directly by the newspaper’s reporters whether he was considering pulling the U.S. from the organization, Trump replied: “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.”

The comments come after NATO members declined the president’s appeals that they send warships to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a key oil route effectively shut by Iran, sending global energy prices sharply higher.

“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,” he said of the allies’ reluctance to join the Iran conflict.

Continuing, Trump signalled frustration with allies he said had failed to reciprocate U.S. support 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, and we would always have been there for them. They weren’t there for us.”

The president also singled out the UK, where The Telegraph is headquartered, snubbing the country’s military strength and questioning whether it would be effective in Iran at all: “You don’t even have a navy. You’re too old and had aircraft carriers that didn’t work.”

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