Trump rages against NATO allies, saying US doesn’t need them and never did

President Donald Trump on Tuesday fumed at longtime American allies he says aren’t doing enough to help the U.S. and Israel in their war against Iran, now arguing that their assistance was never needed after spending days publicly requesting their help.

“Because of the fact that we have had such Military Success, we no longer ‘need,’ or desire, the NATO Countries’ assistance — WE NEVER DID!” he wrote on Truth Social. “Likewise, Japan, Australia, or South Korea. In fact, speaking as President of the United States of America, by far the Most Powerful Country Anywhere in the World, WE DO NOT NEED THE HELP OF ANYONE!”

America’s top allies have largely resisted the president’s calls to take on an active role in the Middle East war, which the U.S. and Israel launched in February, arguing Iran presented an imminent threat.

In recent days, Trump has repeatedly asked global allies — and some geopolitical foes, including China — for help securing the Strait of Hormuz. The waterway is key for trade, and disruptions to the international energy market have sent oil prices spiking.

International leaders largely rebuffed those calls from the president.

“We did not start this war,” German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said Monday. Trump’s push for European assistance was tantamount to “blackmail,” Luxembourg’s Deputy Prime Minister Xavier Bettel said to reporters. French President Emmanuel Macron panned the strikes on Iran as illegal just days after the conflict began. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has said the U.K. “will not be drawn into a wider war” in the region.

In the meantime, some domestic Trump allies worry that securing the Strait of Hormuz and jump-starting the global oil trade could require sending American troops into Iran.

The president, who has long sown doubt in the value of NATO and mused about pulling the U.S. out of the alliance, on Sunday cautioned that NATO allies faced a “very bad future” if they refrained from aiding U.S. efforts to reopen the waterway. But their reticence did not come as a shock, he wrote on his social media platform Tuesday.

“I am not surprised by their action, however, because I always considered NATO, where we spend Hundreds of Billions of Dollars per year protecting these same Countries, to be a one way street — We will protect them, but they will do nothing for us, in particular, in a time of need,” Trump said.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a key proponent of the operation in Iran and a close allies of the president, said he spoke to the president over the phone on Tuesday. Graham wrote on X Tuesday that “never heard him so angry in my life.”

“I share that anger given what’s at stake,” he said. “The arrogance of our allies to suggest that Iran with a nuclear weapon is of little concern and that military action to stop the ayatollah from acquiring a nuclear bomb is our problem not theirs is beyond offensive.”