Trump Signals NATO Withdrawal After Allies Refuse to Join Iran War

Trump Signals NATO Withdrawal After Allies Refuse to Join Iran War

Quick Reads

• White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed on Wednesday that Trump has “discussed” withdrawing from NATO, framing the Iran war as a “test” the alliance “failed.”
• Trump and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte met at the White House on April 8 for what both sides described as a “frank and open” discussion.
• European allies, including France and Spain, refused to contribute combat forces to the US-Israel war on Iran and restricted or denied access to their airspace and bases.
• After the meeting, Trump posted on Truth Social: “NATO WASN’T THERE WHEN WE NEEDED THEM, AND THEY WON’T BE THERE IF WE NEED THEM AGAIN.”
• A 2023 law co-sponsored by current US Secretary of State Marco Rubio requires two-thirds Senate approval before any president can pull the country out of NATO.

The Trump administration has publicly signaled it is weighing a withdrawal from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization NATO, the 77-year-old transatlantic military alliance, after European member states declined to provide combat support for the US-Israel war against Iran that began on February 28. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Wednesday that NATO membership is “something the president has discussed” and would be on the table during Trump’s meeting that afternoon with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte. Reading directly from a Trump quote, Leavitt said of the alliance: “They were tested, and they failed.” She added that it was “quite sad that NATO turned their backs on the American people over the course of the last six weeks.”

Rutte, the former Dutch prime minister widely described as the “Trump whisperer” for his ability to manage the US president, met with both Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Trump himself on Wednesday. The State Department said Rubio and Rutte discussed the effort to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran effectively closed after the war began, sending global oil prices up by more than 40 percent. In a CNN interview after his White House meeting, Rutte acknowledged Trump’s “clear disappointment” but stressed that European nations had contributed logistics support, airspace access, and basing to US operations. He declined to directly answer whether Trump had threatened to leave the alliance. The Wall Street Journal reported separately that the administration is also considering moving US troops out of NATO members Spain and Germany as punishment for their refusal to support the Iran campaign. The threat, even if largely symbolic for now, marks a dangerous escalation in tensions between Washington and its closest allies. Under a 2023 law that was co-sponsored by Rubio when he was a Florida senator, Trump cannot unilaterally withdraw the United States from NATO, a two-thirds majority in the Senate would be required. Despite this legal constraint, analysts warn that signalling a lack of commitment to Article 5 collective defence could embolden Russia, particularly in the Baltic states. Former US Ambassador to NATO Ivo Daalder described the situation as “by far the worst crisis NATO has ever confronted.” After the meeting concluded, Trump took to Truth Social with an all-caps message repeating his frustration and reviving his threat over Greenland, offering no indication that Rutte’s arguments had changed his position.