Donald Trump told The Telegraph on Wednesday that he is strongly considering pulling the United States out of NATO after the alliance failed to support his war on Iran. In a blunt and wide-ranging interview, Trump dropped what many are calling the most consequential foreign policy bombshell of his presidency. The word “permanently” hung heavy in the air as he made clear this was not a passing thought.
“They weren’t there for us,” Trump said, summing up his frustration with NATO allies who refused to send warships to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. That single line captures everything Trump feels about a 77-year-old alliance he has never truly believed in. For him, this was the final test, and Europe failed it.
Trump called NATO a “paper tiger” and said removing America from the defence treaty was now “beyond reconsideration.” Those two words carry enormous weight. They signal that the door may already be closing on America’s most important military partnership.
The Strait of Hormuz is the world’s most critical oil chokepoint, with roughly 20 percent of global oil passing through it every day. Tehran has effectively shut it down for weeks, sending energy prices spiralling and pushing the global economy toward recession. Trump wanted NATO allies to help force it back open. They said no.
“Oh yes, I would say it’s beyond reconsideration,” Trump told The Telegraph when asked if he would reconsider US membership after the conflict. “I was never swayed by NATO. I always knew they were a paper tiger, and Putin knows that too, by the way.”
That last line is perhaps the most alarming part. Trump is essentially confirming what Vladimir Putin has long believed: that NATO is hollow. Saying it out loud, as the sitting US president, is a gift to Moscow that Europe cannot afford.
Trump also pointed to Ukraine as proof of NATO’s ingratitude. He reminded allies that America stood by Ukraine when it didn’t have to. “It was a test, and we were there for them, and we would always have been there for them,” he said. “They weren’t there for us.”
The president then turned his fire directly on the United Kingdom. He mocked Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer for staying out of the Iran war and took a sharp swipe at the state of Britain’s military. “You don’t even have a navy. You’re too old and had aircraft carriers that didn’t work,” Trump said.
Those words stung because they are not entirely wrong. At the start of the Iran conflict, four of Britain’s six destroyers were already out of service and under repair. The UK has even been forced to borrow a warship from Germany just to meet its basic NATO obligations in the North Atlantic.
On Tuesday, the First Sea Lord publicly admitted that the Royal Navy is not ready for war. That admission, coming from Britain’s most senior naval officer, could not have landed at a worse moment. It handed Trump exactly the ammunition he needed.
Sir Keir pushed back, calling NATO “the single most effective military alliance the world has ever seen.” He also signalled he would move closer to Europe amid the growing chill with Washington. “This is not our war, and we’re not going to get dragged into it,” he said firmly.
Trump was not done. He dismissed Starmer’s defence priorities entirely, saying: “All Starmer wants is costly windmills that are driving your energy prices through the roof.” It was a dig at Britain’s green energy agenda that played well to Trump’s domestic audience but deepened the diplomatic rift.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio echoed his boss on Fox News just hours before the interview was published. He called NATO a “one-way street” and said America would have to “re-examine” its membership once the Iran war ends. Trump told The Telegraph he was “glad” Rubio said it.
Rubio’s position matters because he once co-sponsored a law designed to stop any president from unilaterally withdrawing from NATO. That same man is now publicly questioning the alliance’s value. The shift is staggering.
Legal experts note that any formal US withdrawal from NATO would require approval from Congress. But former Obama NATO ambassador Ivo Daalder warned that Trump could effectively hollow out the alliance without a single vote. “He can withdraw all American troops, he can withdraw all Americans from the command structure,” Daalder said. “All of that is legal.”
Trump is also reportedly considering pulling US troops out of Germany entirely, a move he has flirted with since returning to office. Senior administration officials have separately pushed a “pay-to-play model” that would block underfunding allies from NATO decision-making, including during wartime.
The president is set to address the nation at 9pm EST on Wednesday with an update on the Iran war. He said Tuesday night the conflict could end in “two weeks, maybe three,” with its sole goal being to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.
Europe is watching. And if Trump follows through, the continent that has relied on American military protection since 1949 will wake up to a world it is completely unprepared to face alone.
