Trump’s brusque threat to Europe: Go it alone.
- The San Juan Daily Star
- 5 hours ago
- 4 min read
By MICHAEL D SHEAR
President Donald Trump lashed out at the Continent’s leaders again Wednesday, escalating verbal attacks that verge on diplomatic bullying as he appeared to shrug off decades of political and military commitments established by handshakes and treaties over eight decades.
In a series of social media posts and news interviews during the past several days, Trump struck a theme familiar to European leaders: that Europe is weak and toothless, and an ungrateful partner to the United States. There would be dire consequences, he said: The Continent could soon be on its own, cut off from U.S. military protection and left to its own devices when it comes to securing its energy supplies and economic prosperity.
He rattled the threats off in rapid-fire fashion: The countries of Europe should “go get your own oil” in the increasingly dangerous Strait of Hormuz, he said. The United States “will REMEMBER” France’s refusal to be helpful in the United States’ war on Iran, he wrote. NATO, he told a British journalist, is a “paper tiger” and the United States will reconsider its participation in the military alliance.
The president’s comments plunged European leaders into another cycle of anxious deliberation, similar to when he mused last year about invading Greenland before ultimately backing off.
In the past, the president has often climbed down from threats to sever the U.S. relationship with NATO and to abandon the countries of Europe. But the ferocity of his current language, delivered in the middle of an economically costly war with Iran, presents an urgent question to U.S. allies: What if, this time, he’s serious?
“This isn’t the first time he’s done this, and since it’s a recurring phenomenon, you can probably judge the consequences for yourself,” Stefan Kornelius, the spokesperson for Chancellor Friedrich Merz of Germany, told reporters in Berlin. “It’s not my place here to comment on the American president’s words. I simply want to state on behalf of the German government that we are, of course, committed to NATO.”
The president’s latest threat to withdraw from NATO, which he made in an interview with The Telegraph newspaper, appeared driven by his anger over the refusal of European countries to support his war on Iran. Scolding Europe, he said the U.S. had come to the defense of Ukraine for Europe but that those same countries “weren’t there for us” during the war with Iran.
Asked in the interview if he was considering withdrawing from NATO, he said it was “beyond reconsideration.”
“I was never swayed by NATO,’’ Trump said. “I always knew they were a paper tiger, and Putin knows that, too, by the way.”
If the United States left NATO, it would drastically reshape the security apparatus for the European continent, which has relied for decades on U.S. military power. Without U.S. assistance, Europe and NATO could struggle to defend Ukraine, and possibly its own borders, from Russian aggression.
With the United States and Israel having launched an intense conflict with Iran, and with Russia in its fourth year of war in Ukraine, Trump’s potential retreat from European security has broad implications for how the Continent’s leaders assemble a coalition to defend their democracies. Under pressure from Trump, NATO countries have increased their military spending, but not enough to stand on their own against a formidable threat.
Trump has been particularly upset about the European refusal to help free the Strait of Hormuz, where Iran has effectively curtailed shipping, sending oil prices and gas prices surging and roiling the global economy.
British officials said that Yvette Cooper, the foreign secretary, would assemble a virtual meeting of officials from 35 countries Thursday to discuss how to reopen the critical waterway to shipments of oil, gas, fertilizer and other goods. They said further working-level meetings would follow the initial session to work out details.
In the interview with The Telegraph, Trump again attacked British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and mocked the capabilities of the British military.
“You don’t even have a navy,” he said. “You’re too old and had aircraft carriers that didn’t work.”
Starmer, like other leaders in Europe, is trapped between the desire to offer a fiery response to Trump’s broadsides and the fear of further angering the American president.
At a previously scheduled news conference Wednesday morning, soon after the Telegraph interview was published, Starmer repeatedly declined to respond to Trump’s comments. The prime minister said he was still determined to mostly stay out of the conflict with Iran.
“Whatever the pressure on me and others, whatever the noise, I’m going to act in the British national interest in the decisions that I make,” Starmer said. “That’s why I’ve been absolutely clear that this is not our war and we’re not going to get dragged into it.”
Starmer did not respond directly to the president’s threat to withdraw from NATO, saying only that “NATO is the single most effective military alliance the world has ever seen, and it has kept us safe for many decades, and we are fully committed to NATO.”
But he hinted at a possible future when his country might no longer be able to rely on the United States.
“It is increasingly clear that as the world continues down this volatile path, our long-term national interest requires closer partnership with our allies in Europe and with the European Union,” he said. He announced plans for a new summit between the European Union and Britain to strengthen security and economic ties that were ruptured by the Brexit vote nearly 10 years ago.
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