Trump berates allies while signaling he will wind down the war.

A drag performance in an underground parking garage that is used as a public bomb shelter in Jerusalem on Tuesday night, March 31, 2026. (Amit Elkayam/The New York Times)

By ABDI LATIF DAHIR, MEGAN SPECIA and ERIKA SOLOMON

President Donald Trump said he was considering pulling the United States out of NATO over the war with Iran, as he heaps pressure on allies to manage the fallout of a conflict he signaled he would wind down in two or three weeks.

In an interview with Britain’s Telegraph newspaper published Wednesday, Trump was asked whether he was reconsidering U.S. membership in the military alliance and was quoted as replying, “Oh yes,” and that it was “beyond reconsideration.” The remarks were published hours after Trump said he expected the U.S. military campaign in Iran would be over “very soon” and dismissed Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz, which has jolted global energy markets, as a problem for other countries to resolve.

In a social media post Tuesday, Trump had again denigrated U.S. allies, chiefly Britain, for not heeding his call for help in securing the strait, a conduit for much of the global oil supply, and said the United States would not come to their aid in the future. An Iranian official emphasized Wednesday that the United States would not regain access to the waterway, saying in a social media post: “The Strait of Hormuz will certainly reopen, but not for you.”

Trump was scheduled to deliver “an important update” on the war in a national address at 9 p.m. Eastern time Wednesday, said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt. On Tuesday afternoon, Trump told reporters he had achieved his primary goal of preventing Iran from developing a nuclear weapon, though there is no evidence that the United States or Israel has destroyed the country’s stockpile of near-bomb-grade fuel.

Earlier Tuesday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the U.S. had achieved such control of Iran’s skies that it was flying B-52 bombers directly over Iranian territory. But Hegseth acknowledged that Iran retained the ability to retaliate with missiles and drones targeting U.S. allies in the region. On Wednesday morning, authorities in Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar all reported missile or drone attacks from Iran.

The Israeli military said Wednesday that it had completed a wave of strikes against Iranian government infrastructure in Tehran, the capital, without specifying the targets. Iranian state television reported that three locations were hit, including an area northeast of Tehran with military buildings and housing.