Days after demanding help from NATO and other U.S. allies to escort ships through the Strait of Hormuz, Donald Trump now says the U.S. doesn’t need any help after his pleas were uniformly rejected.
Asked about his progress in obtaining help to protect oil tankers that have been threatened by Iran as a result of the war he launched just over two weeks ago, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office Tuesday: “Well, we don’t need too much help, and we don’t need any help.”
Speaking alongside Irish Taoiseach Micheál Martin during a bilateral meeting to mark the Irish leader’s traditional Saint Patrick’s Day visit to Washington, Trump claimed NATO member states had been “very much in favor” of his decision to unilaterally take the U.S. to war and repeated his oft-used talking point about having “decimated” Iran’s military with a punishing air campaign.
He also expressed astonishment that NATO allies would not heed his demand for assistance, citing his frequently used description of the alliance as a sort of protection racket in which member states should aid U.S. forces because of America’s troop presence in Europe.
“Despite the fact that we help them so much … they don’t want to help us, which is amazing,” he said.
He added that the alliance is “making a very foolish mistake” and again repeated his claim that his call for assistance was a “test.”
The president’s Oval Office diatribe followed a similarly worded Truth Social post issued moments before the meeting with Martin where Trump said he’d “always” thought the NATO alliance to be a “one way street,” complaining that “we will protect them” while allies “will do nothing for us, in particular, in a time of need” while seemingly ignorant of the fact that the only time the North Atlantic Treaty’s mutual defense provision has been invoked was to defend the U.S. after the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington by al-Qaeda.
He claimed the joint U.S.-Israeli air campaign had eliminated Iran’s navy, air force and air defense network as well as most of the country’s leadership “at virtually every level.”
“Because of the fact that we have had such Military Success, we no longer ‘need,i or desire, the NATO Countries’ assistance — WE NEVER DID,” he added.
His assertion that the U.S. does not need any assistance to protect commercial shipping in the strait — a key choke point for a fifth of the world’s oil supply — comes just days after he urged “China, France, Japan, South Korea, the U.K. and others, that are affected by this artificial constraint” to send ships to escort oil tankers after Iran effectively blockaded the narrow waterway.
Multiple ships have been struck by projectiles since the start of the war on February 28, while Iran has allowed tankers serving China and India to pass unmolested because they are carrying Iranian oil.
The result has been economic upheaval, with global oil prices skyrocketing and gasoline prices following suit in rapid succession.
Though Trump warned that a failure to assist would be “very bad for the future of NATO,” not a single alliance member has offered ships or any other assistance.
On Monday, British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said there were ongoing conversations about working out a “viable plan” but said securing the strait would be “not easy” and “not straightforward” without ending the conflict.
The German government has also declined, with a spokesperson stating that the war had “nothing to do with NATO” and Defense Minister Boris Pistorious asking in response: “ “What does Trump expect from a handful of European frigates that the powerful U.S. navy cannot do?”
“This is not our war. We have not started it,” he added.
While French President Emmanuel Macron has also said he’s attempting to form a coalition aimed at protecting freedom of navigation in the strait, he has stressed that such actions can only move forward after the “hottest phase” of the war has ended.
