“The United States has been informed by most of our NATO ‘Allies’ that they don’t want to get involved with our Military Operation against the Terrorist Regime of Iran, in the Middle East, this, despite the fact that almost every Country strongly agreed with what we are doing, and that Iran cannot, in any way, shape, or form, be allowed to have a Nuclear Weapon,” the president wrote on his Truth Social social media platform.

In a lengthy, apparently angry post, Trump denied being “surprised by their action” because he has “always” considered NATO “to be a one-way street” where the U.S. will “protect” its allies, “but they will do nothing for us, in particular, in a time of need.”

The only instance of NATO invoking its Article 5 collective defense obligations, under which an armed attack against one ally is an attack against them all, was to come to the aid of the U.S. after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. 

“Because of the fact that we have had such Military Success, we no longer ‘need,’ or desire, the NATO Countries’ assistance — WE NEVER DID!” Trump added of his Iran war. “Likewise, Japan, Australia, or South Korea.”

Trump has never appreciated multilateral alliances and organizations, preferring their bilateral counterparts instead.

The president has criticized the United Nations as being useless and has prompted multilateral summit organizers to shorten their programs after he departed last year’s Group of Seven leaders meeting in Canada early to strike Iran for the first time during his second administration as part of Operation Midnight Hammer. 

Last year’s NATO summit in the Netherlands was condensed into one day, and the date for this year’s G7 in France was moved to accommodate Trump’s plan for UFC Freedom 250, a mixed martial arts fight on the White House’s South Lawn marking 250 years since the Revolutionary War.

“All I got from the U.N. was an escalator that, on the way up, stopped right in the middle and a teleprompter that didn’t work,” Trump told the United Nations General Assembly last year.

There is also the infamous image of Trump at the 2018 G7, during which he was photographed sitting with his arms folded as other world leaders, including former German Chancellor Angela Merkel, tried to engage him. That is in addition to the president being captured on camera during a photo opportunity at the 2017 NATO summit, pushing then-Montenegrin Prime Minister Dusko Markovic aside, and making himself more prominent.

It is NATO that has been a long-term target of Trump’s ire, resulting in the alliance first increasing its defense spending to 2% of each respective ally’s gross domestic product by 2024 during his first administration, to 5% by 2035 during his second term. 

But regardless of last year’s new defense spending pledges, it has been NATO allies’ reluctance since the start of Trump’s Iran war to assist the U.S. with the Strait of Hormuz, which has become one of the world’s most strategic shipping chokepoints, given Iran is the world’s ninth-largest oil producer, that has tried Trump’s patience again. 

But regardless of last year’s new defense spending pledges, NATO allies’ reluctance since the start of Trump’s Iran war to assist the U.S. with the Strait of Hormuz, which has become one of the world’s most strategic shipping chokepoints, has tried Trump’s patience again. The sea passage is the world’s ninth-largest oil producer.

Sitting beside Irish Taoiseach Micheal Martin in the White House’s Oval Office for St. Patrick’s Day celebrations, Trump bemoaned NATO, with Ireland, to maybe Martin’s Irish luck, not being a member of the alliance.

“I’ve long said that, you know, I wonder whether or not NATO would ever be there for us. So this is a, this was a great test, because we don’t need them, but they should have been there,” he told reporters. “The other thing is, and I think, you know, very important, we didn’t have to be there for Ukraine.”

When asked whether he would rethink the U.S.’s relationship with NATO, Trump replied: “It’s certainly something that we should think about. I don’t need Congress for that decision, as you probably know, I can make that decision myself.”

Trump specifically scrutinized British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, complaining Starmer, a more liberal politician, is “not [his predecessor] Winston Churchill.”

“Keir Starmer has done a lot to reset the Irish-British relationship, I just want to put that on the record,” Martin, the taoiseach, responded. “You’ve got on with him before, and you’ve got on with other European leaders as well, and I think you have that capacity again.”

Trump has already tested the U.S.’s relationship with NATO, most recently with his threats against Greenland, a Danish territory and, as a result, a member of the alliance. The president, too, has raised questions about the importance of Article 5 and U.S. troop deployments to NATO allies. 

“Trump spent the past year verbally attacking our NATO allies, besmirching the alliance, and squandering goodwill,” Biden White House National Security Council spokesman Sean Savett told the Washington Examiner. “Then he started an unnecessary war without consulting those allies or making any effort to build support from them — only to plead for backup when things started to go poorly and inflation started skyrocketing around the world. Of course he shouldn’t be surprised they’re not eager to bail him out.”

Savett continued: “No, this doesn’t represent the end of the alliance but it’s another crack in its foundation Donald Trump has caused.”

The 2026 National Defense Authorization Act included a provision that prevents any U.S. president from unilaterally withdrawing from NATO without congressional approval, requiring an unlikely two-thirds majority vote in the Senate, as well as prohibiting him from reducing the number of U.S. service members in Europe to less than 76,000 people and authorizing $175 million for the Baltic Security Initiative to strengthen regional defenses.

TRUMP DISMISSES ALLIES AS HE SEEKS TO SECURE THE STRAIT OF HORMUZ: ‘WE DON’T NEED THEM’

In spite of this, Trump expressed his frustration to a different type of ally on Tuesday, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who shared on social media he had “never heard him so angry in my life.”

“The repercussions of providing little assistance to keep the Strait of Hormuz functioning are going to be wide and deep for Europe and America,” the war hawk senator and congressional ally wrote. “I consider myself very forward-leaning on supporting alliances, however at a time of real testing like this, it makes me second guess the value of these alliances. I am certain I am not the only senator who feels this way.”