President Donald Trump called NATO a “paper tiger” and has threatened to pull the U.S. out of the alliance system after European allies declined to actively join the U.S. and Israeli campaign against Iran.
“Oh yes, I would say [it’s] beyond reconsideration. I was never swayed by NATO. I always knew they were a paper Tiger, and Putin knows that too, by the way,” Trump said in an interview with Telegraph when asked if after the war ends he would reconsider U.S. membership in NATO.
NATO, which stands for North Atlantic Treaty Organization, was founded in 1949 with significant American backing as an alliance to counter the powerful Soviet Union, which occupied the eastern half of Europe following the defeat of Nazi Germany until the late 1980s.
Trump’s latest criticism of the alliance came over a week before his scheduled meeting with NATO chief, Mark Rutte in Washington DC and it came after some of the European allies refused to permit U.S. military aircraft from using their bases to attack Iran.
Others didn’t respond when the U.S. sought support to reinstate freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz after it was closed off by Iranian forces following the initial wave of U.S. and Israeli strikes.
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Trump‘s complaints were echoed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who said on Fox News’ The Sean Hannity Show on April 1 that NATO is meant to let Washington use its military bases for American national security.
“NATO wasn’t just about defending Europe, but allowing us to have military bases in Europe for our national security,” Rubio said. “If we’ve reached a point where the NATO alliance means that we can’t use those bases to defend our interests, then it’s a one-way street,” he said.
Practical and legal hurdles of pulling out of NATO
One expert believes the U.S. will not pull out of NATO and Trump’s statements are just meant to convince Europe to join the war.
“Trump will not pull out of NATO,” Madhav Nalapat, a noted geopolitical analyst and vice chair of the India-based Manipal Advanced Research Group, told Vision Times.
“It’s meant to persuade NATO to join” the war, he said.
Legally it’s not simple for the US to pull out of NATO because it’s bound by a law that prevents such a suspension, according to a report by Andrea Palasciano and Jamie Tarabay of Bloomberg.
Rubio, when he was a senator in 2023 had espoused a bipartisan provision called Fiscal Year 2024 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that prohibits the U.S. President from suspending, terminating or withdrawing U.S. participation from NATO without Congress’ approval.
Palasciano and Jamie said that for any change to happen to this law, the Senate has to approve it with a two-third majority or the Congress has to pass a new law.
“Neither of those are possibilities, as Republicans who favor the alliance will likely side with Democrats to circumvent any action Trump might urge Congress to take,” the Bloomberg article reads.
Rutte–Trump meeting
Rutte’s scheduled meeting with Trump in early April is happening in the aftermath of these statements from the White House. His upcoming meeting will likely be focussed on mending relations.
In a message on Truth Social on March 20, Trump had again called NATO a “paper tiger” and questioned its identity without the United States.
“They didn’t want to join the fight to stop a Nuclear Powered Iran. Now that fight is militarily WON, with very little danger for them, they complain about the high oil prices they are forced to pay, but don’t want to help open the Strait of Hormuz, a simple military maneuver that is the single reason for the high oil prices. So easy for them to do, with so little risk. COWARDS, and we will REMEMBER!” Trump wrote.
However Rutte had said in an CBS News interview on Face The Nation with Margaret Brennan on Thursday, March 22 that Trump is trying to “degrade Iran’s capabilities to be an export of chaos, sheer chaos to the region, to the world.”
When asked for a comment on Trump’s frustration about NATO not participating in the Iran war and in helping open the Strait of Hormuz, Rutte had said that he had several conversations with Trump during the week and that the U.S. had planned Operation Epic Fury for weeks and because of security reasons couldn’t share about it with European and other allies and partners.
“The European countries need a couple of weeks to come together. The good news is that since Thursday, 22 countries, most of them NATO but also Japan, Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Bahrain, the UAE have come together to basically answer three questions: What do we need? When do we need it and where do we need it?”
Rutte had said that these questions are being worked through to answer Trump’s call to make free navigation through the Strait of Hormuz.
