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President Donald Trump sent his clearest warning yet to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) on Sunday: Stand with the U.S. for defense of the Strait of Hormuz or face a “very bad” future.
“It’s only appropriate that people who are the beneficiaries of the strait will help to make sure that nothing bad happens there,” Trump told The Financial Times in an interview Sunday. “If there’s no response, or if it’s a negative response, I think it will be very bad for the future of NATO.”
Trump echoed those remarks in a press gaggle aboard Air Force One on Sunday night, returning to Washington, D.C., from a weekend at Mar-a-Lago, saying it would “be nice to have other countries police that with us, and we’ll help – we’ll work militarily.”
“Remember, like as an example of many cases that NATO countries, we’re always there for NATO,” Trump told reporters, pointing to “helping them with Ukraine” even though “between us, it doesn’t affect us.”
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“But we’ve helped them,” he added, repeating his comments to the United Nations General Assembly last fall, questioning whether NATO will “always be there for us.”
Trump is looking for NATO allies’ assistance in securing the oil tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz for the rest of the world. Trump administration officials have been repeating throughout the choking of the strait that the U.S. under Trump is a net exporter of oil and gets only a fraction of its oil from the Middle East – unlike the rest of the world, including NATO allies.
“It’d be interesting to see what country wouldn’t help us with a very small endeavor, which is just keeping the Strait open, and that, by comparison is a small [ask],” Trump added to reporters on Air Force One. “It’s small because Iran has very little firepower.”
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Trump remained optimistic that NATO allies will ultimately get on board.
“We are talking to other countries about working with us about the policing of the strait, and I think we’re getting a good response,” Trump told reporters on AF1. “If we do, that’s great – and if we don’t, that’s great.”
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NATO has long been a point of contention for Trump, who had to repeatedly call on member organizations to reach even the 2% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) spending threshold during his first administration. Current Trump U.S. Ambassador to NATO Matt Whitaker has hailed this second administration in getting NATO to commit 5% of GDP in defense spending.
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