Trump fumes at NATO for refusing to help secure the Strait of Hormuz,
and embraces going it alone
[March 18, 2026]
By AAMER MADHANI, DARLENE SUPERVILLE and MICHELLE L. PRICE
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Tuesday NATO and most
other allies have rejected his calls to help secure the Strait of
Hormuz, grousing that he has been unable to rally support behind his war
of choice in Iran that he insists he's conducting for the good of the
world, even if it doesn't appreciate his effort.
Trump, who has been pressing allies to help safeguard the critical
waterway to ease a chokepoint on the region's oil exports, fumed that
the U.S. is not getting support “despite the fact that we helped” NATO
“so much,” and said that it was in allies' interest to prevent Iran from
securing a nuclear weapon.
Trump’s indignant response to allies’ refusal to get involved in the war
underscored that the conflict — now in its third week and causing
reverberations across the global economy — is one the international
community is looking to the U.S. leader to sort out himself after he
launched it without consultation.
“You would have thought they would have said, ‘We’d love to send a
couple of minesweepers.' That’s not a big deal,” Trump said. “It doesn’t
cost very much money. But they didn’t do that.”
While he expressed resentment at traditional U.S. allies, Trump insisted
he’s OK with the solidifying dynamic of the conflict, which, for better
or worse, will rest largely on his shoulders alone.
While Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been urging him on
this path for months, Trump has increasingly made the case that the road
to conflict was chosen by one man. It started based on what Trump
described as a “feeling” about the threat posed by Iran, and he has said
it will end when his gut says it's time.
“We don’t need any help, actually,” Trump told reporters as he hosted
Ireland’s Prime Minister Micheál Martin for a St. Patrick's Day visit to
the White House.
Trump complained that NATO allies have counted on tens of billions of
dollars in U.S. backing for Ukraine to fend off Russia’s invasion, but
could not return the favor to help the U.S. and Israel in its efforts to
defang Iran, which has posed a threat to the Middle East and beyond for
years. The U.S., he added, has spent hundreds of billions fortifying
Europe and Asian defenses.
Later Tuesday, the U.S. military announced it had fired multiple
5,000-pound deep penetrator bombs on hardened Iranian missile sites
along Iran’s coastline near the strait. The Iranian anti-ship cruise
missiles targeted at the sites posed a risk to international shipping in
the strait, according to U.S. Central Command.
Trump has had a hot-and-cold relationship with the alliance, a linchpin
of the post World War II national security framework that he believes
had become too dependent on the U.S. Trump has hammered bloc members for
spending too little and even questioned U.S. commitment to the mutual
defense statute in NATO’s founding treaty that states an attack on one
member is considered an attack on all.
NATO exists as a defensive alliance, not an offensive one, and NATO has
said it has no plans to get involved in the U.S.-led war with Iran.
However, NATO troops did deploy for 18 years to Afghanistan and its 2011
air campaign helped topple Libya’s late leader Moammar Gadhafi.
“We will protect them, but they will do nothing for us, in particular,
in a time of need,” Trump said on social media.
Trump directed most of his pique at NATO
Trump noted that allies in Japan, Australia, and South Korea — as well
as China — have rejected his calls to get involved in helping secure the
strait, the critical waterway through which, in typical times, about 20%
of the world's crude oil passes each day. Asia is the most exposed to
the trade disruption because it relies heavily on imported fuel, much of
which is shipped through the strait.
The European Union’s top diplomat pushed back at Trump, saying the
27-nation bloc does not want to be dragged into the U.S.-Israel war on
Iran and broadly rejected Trump’s demand to send warships to the Straits
of Hormuz.
“This is not Europe’s war. We didn’t start the war. We were not
consulted,” EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on Tuesday, a day
after chairing talks among the member countries about Trump’s warship
demand.
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President Donald Trump listens to a reporter's question during a
meeting with Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin in the Oval Office
of the White House, on St. Patrick's Day, Tuesday, March 17, 2026,
in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
“We don’t know what are the objectives of this war,” Kallas said.
“The member states do not have the wish to be dragged into this.”
Trump called the moment a “great test” for NATO and said the
alliance was making “a very foolish mistake” by rejecting him.
Trump was asked by a reporter if he was rethinking the U.S.
relationship with NATO in light of the response to the Iran war — or
perhaps even pondering getting out of the military alliance.
“It’s certainly something that we should think about. I don’t need
Congress for that decision,” Trump said. He added, “I have nothing
currently in mind, but I’m not exactly thrilled.”
It’s debatable if Trump could pull out of NATO on his own. Congress
passed a law in 2023 that requires congressional authorization to
leave the military alliance. Experts have said Trump could try to
negotiate loopholes, perhaps citing presidential authority over
foreign policy, to try to get around the law.
Trump’s position that America’s longstanding support for NATO should
be reciprocated now that the U.S. has asked for help in Iran is
being met with stiff resistance.
French President Emmanuel Macron said his country is ready to help
secure the Strait of Hormuz but only as part of a mission separate
from the current Middle East war.
“We are not a party to the conflict, and therefore France will never
take part in operations to reopen or liberate the Strait of Hormuz,”
Macron said.
Trump was dismissive of Macron's position. “Well, he’ll be out of
office very soon,” Trump said of the French president, whose second
five-year term is scheduled to end in May 2027.
Trump also said he was “disappointed” in British Prime Minister Keir
Starmer. The prime minister had initially blocked American planes
from using British bases for the attacks on Iran that started on
Saturday. He later agreed to let the United States use bases in
England and on Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean to strike Iran’s
ballistic missiles and their storage sites, but not to hit other
targets.
He also jabbed at Ireland's President Catherine Connolly, when asked
about her criticism that the U.S. and Israeli operations have been
“deliberate assaults on international law.”
“Look, he's lucky I exist,” Trump said of Connolly, who is a woman.
Still, while Trump may have decided that the U.S. no longer needs
outside military assistance to secure the strait, the State
Department has reached out to numerous countries seeking their
support in isolating Iran by designating the Islamic Revolutionary
Guard Corps and Hezbollah as terrorist organizations, actions that
would result in sanctions against those groups and their members.
A cable sent to all U.S. diplomatic missions on Monday asked
American diplomats based in countries that have not yet made such
designations to act quickly to do so given the widespread
retaliation for the U. S-Israeli military operation that Iran has
launched over the past two weeks.
“Now is the time for other nations to take concrete action against
Iran, including by designating the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps
(IRGC) and its proxy. Hezbollah, as terrorist organizations,” said
the cable, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press.
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AP writers Matthew Lee in Washington, Sylvie Corbet in Paris, and
Lorne Cook in Brussels contributed reporting.
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