In response to a reporter’s question, President Trump suggested he could withdraw the US from NATO. He said he doesn’t need congressional approval for that. The President is disappointed that NATO nations won’t help patrol the Strait of Hormuz. They say it’s not their war.
This is probably just an effort to push them to assist. However, outside of Turkey, European nations can’t even defend themselves. They depend on the US.
President Trump minimized the dangers of patrolling and of expanding the war. I would not want to see this war expand. Hopefully, he can get the Strait under control and leave soon. I think he will.
We wanted a tough guy, and we got one.
JUST IN: President Trump says he is thinking about leaving NATO, says he doesn’t need approval from Congress.
Reporter: Are you rethinking the United States’ relationship with NATO? Possibly getting out?
Trump: I’m disappointed in NATO that we spend trillions of dollars on… pic.twitter.com/zNVkPrZQOa
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) March 17, 2026
From Europe’s point of view:
Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry @pegobry_en, Xposter:
Utterly, completely baffled by the notion that the US could wake up one day and launch a massive regional war, purely unilaterally without at any point consulting allies, and a week later be like “Join the war now” and said allies should be expected to snap to attention and commit their troops to said war. I am pretty sure this has never ever happened in human history and that no alliance has ever worked like this. Just utterly deranged.
And this is still true even if the war is a very good idea!
To take a couple obvious examples:
– In the run-up to the Iraq War, some European countries (very wisely) opted to abstain, other countries opted to join. If instead of engaging in a multi-month diplomatic campaign to make their case the Bush Administration had taken an opportunity to effect a decapitation strike, the number of countries that would have joined would have been a big fat zero, for very obvious reasons.
– In the run-up to World War II, France repeatedly intended to go to war to stop Hitler before it was too late. And each time they tried to get their ally Britain onboard, and each time Britain said no. If France had acted unilaterally—which they should have—and then demanded Britain join the war, Britain would have told them to buzz off, for very obvious reasons. Note I’m picking an example where the unilateral war against the rising threat to stability is THE RIGHT CALL. But it still would have been the case that the UK would not have joined, and nobody would have expected them to.
Utterly, completely baffled by the notion that the US could wake up one day and launch a massive regional war, purely unilaterally without at any point consulting allies, and a week later be like "Join the war now" and said allies should be expected to snap to attention and… https://t.co/o1AiOJLFIo
— Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry (@pegobry_en) March 17, 2026
It is pretty dysfunctional at this point, to say the least, most counties have made themselves adversaries of the united states rather than allies. Does appear to be more of a waste of time and money.