Donald Trump has said that he is strongly considering leaving Nato over the lack of support shown for his attack on Iran.
The US president told The Telegraph that the military alliance was a “paper tiger” and that taking the US out of the bloc was now “beyond reconsideration”.
“I was never swayed by Nato. I always knew they were a paper tiger, and Putin knows that too, by the way,” he told the newspaper.
The president took aim at the UK, saying the country “doesn’t even have a navy”, after prime minister Sir Keir Starmer reaffirmed that Britain would not get “dragged in” to a conflict that was “not our war”.
Trump on Tuesday singled out Britain and France for a scathing dressing down over their reluctance to get involved in the war.
He wrote on social media that the US “won’t be there to help you any more, just like you weren’t there for us” and told allies they would have to “get your own oil”, following a report that he has told aides he would be willing to end the war without the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.
The closure of the vital waterway is putting enormous pressure on Trump’s allies in Europe, who have come under fire from the Trump administration for not joining the US-Israel strikes on Iran.
The president told The Telegraph that he thought an allied response should be “automatic”. He said Washington had been there “automatically” in trying to mediate a ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia.
“Ukraine wasn’t our problem. It was a test, and we were there for them, and we would always have been there for them. They weren’t there for us.”
Nato’s collective defence clause holds that an attack on one member should be treated as an attack on all, necessitating a response of some kind from all members. The Article 5 clause has only been invoked once, in response to the 9/11 attacks, which saw Nato members rally in aid of the US.
The comments come just weeks after Trump threatened to annex Greenland, a territory of Nato ally Denmark. The president has repeatedly criticised Nato members over low defence spending.
More to follow…
