Trump disparages allies for rebuffing his requests for military assistance.

A man carries donated bedding for his family at a parking lot where people displaced by the fighting have erected their tents in Beirut, Lebanon, on Monday, March 16, 2026. Israel said on Monday that it is expanding its ground offensive in southern Lebanon against Iran-backed Hezbollah, as President Donald Trump’s demand for countries to send warships to reopen the Strait of Hormuz amid Iranian attacks drew a muted response. (David Guttenfelder/The New York Times)

By ANTON TROIANOVSKI, ERICA L. GREEN, DAVID E. SANGER and AARON BOXERMAN

President Donald Trump on Monday disparaged U.S. allies that he said had relied too long — and too expensively — on American defense, as several of those countries have declined to meet his call to send warships to escort merchant vessels in and out of the Persian Gulf.

“We don’t need anybody; we’re the strongest nation in the world,” Trump said. He suggested his request for assistance in reopening the Strait of Hormuz instead amounted to a loyalty test of America’s allies. “I’m almost doing it in some cases not because we need them but because I want to find out how they react,” he said.

Referring to countries that have rebuffed, or reacted coolly, to his appeal for ships, Trump said he had long believed that “if we ever needed help, they won’t be there for us,” and they were proving his point. He added, “You mean for 40 years we’re protecting you, and you don’t want to get involved in something that’s very minor?” noting that Europe, Japan and others depend on oil from the Persian Gulf far more than the United States does.

Even so, Trump said that “numerous countries have told me that they’re on the way.” But asked to name them, he replied, “I’d rather not say yet, but we’ll be announcing them.”

The sharpest refusal to his belated effort to build an international coalition against Iran came Monday from Germany, whose defense minister, Boris Pistorius, said, “This is not our war; we did not start it.” Top officials of Japan, Italy and Australia said Monday that their countries would not participate in efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

The European Union will not expand maritime operations in the region to protect traffic through the strait, said its top diplomat, Kaja Kallas. “This is not Europe’s war, but Europe’s interests are directly at stake,” she said.

Others were noncommittal, including France, South Korea and Britain, whose prime minister, Keir Starmer, said his country would not be “drawn into wider war.”

As Iran blockades most traffic through the oil shipping choke point, Trump’s call on social media Saturday for other nations to join the United States in an escort effort was the first time he had sounded eager to build a broad coalition against Iran. But he was asking for backup from allies he had not consulted ahead of the U.S.-Israeli decision to go to war and whom he had derided as freeloaders again Monday.

The American-Israeli air war against Iran, now in its third week, has killed more than 2,000 people, mostly in Iran and Lebanon, and has drawn in much of the Middle East. Iran has launched rockets and drones at neighboring countries and at ships in the Gulf, and global energy prices have skyrocketed. The price of Brent crude, the global benchmark for oil, briefly reached $106 on Monday.

Volunteer barbers give haircuts to two boys in a parking lot where people displaced by the fighting have erected their tents in Beirut, Lebanon, on Monday, March 16, 2026. (David Guttenfelder/The New York Times)

The United States appears to have been unprepared for the extent of Iran’s retaliation and the need to protect merchant ships and giant oil tankers from attack — something that administration officials have discussed publicly since the first week of the war but has not yet begun. In a video update Monday, Adm. Brad Cooper, the head of U.S. Central Command, did not offer details on how the United States would reopen the strait.

Here’s what else we are covering:

— Attacks in Lebanon: There are few signs that the conflict is easing. Israel’s defense minister, Israel Katz, said that its forces had launched a “ground maneuver” in southern Lebanon, adding to fears that a broader invasion may be coming. More than 800,000 people in Lebanon have fled their homes. The Israelis said Monday they had launched a “broad wave” of attacks across Iran.

— China summit: Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said Trump’s trip to China later this month may be delayed because of the war against Iran, a new sign of how the conflict is casting a shadow over the relationship between the world’s two biggest economies.

— Death toll: At least 1,348 civilians in Iran have been killed since the start of the war, Iran’s U.N. representative told the Security Council on Wednesday, the latest figure the country has provided. In Lebanon, officials said that 886 people had been killed. And in Israel at least 12 people have been killed, according to authorities. The Pentagon has said that 13 American service members have died since the start of the war.