Middle East conflict allies refuse to "step in," Trump says the U.S. may no longer support NATO

U.S. President Trump on the 27th continued to take a “cold look” at NATO ally countries, expressing dissatisfaction with U.S. and Israel’s military actions against Iran, and said the United States may “no longer support” NATO allies. Earlier that day, German Chancellor Scholz accused the U.S. of not requesting military support from NATO allies before launching strikes against Iran, but instead “broadcasting its message” through the media after carrying out the attacks, which is “unacceptable.”

This is the NATO headquarters building in Brussels, Belgium, taken outside the building on November 5, 2025, showing the flags of NATO and member countries. Xinhua News Agency reporter Zhang Zhaoqing photo

According to Reuters, Trump, speaking at an investment forum held in Miami, the United States, on the 27th, said the U.S.’s military action against Iran would have reached a month, and that NATO allies so far have provided the United States with no substantive support, which made him disappointed. He said the United States spends “hundreds of billions of dollars” every year to protect NATO allies, and always provides support for those allies, but now, based on their actions, “I feel we don’t need to support them anymore.”

During this period, Trump expressed dissatisfaction with the United Kingdom and France, and “named” and criticized Scholz, saying, “The Ukraine crisis is not America’s war, but we helped them,” in response to Scholz’s earlier remark that the U.S.-Israel-Iran conflict “is not NATO’s war.”

On February 28, the United States and Israel launched military strikes against Iran, causing shipping risks to surge along the global energy transport chokepoint, the Strait of Hormuz, and leading to sharp fluctuations in global oil prices. Faced with the U.S. proposal for a Strait of Hormuz escort operation, NATO countries including Germany, Italy, Spain, France, and the United Kingdom either clearly refused or spoke ambiguously, leaving the U.S. with a “cool reception.” Analysts believe Europe’s cool response to the U.S. escort request is mainly due to considerations such as not wanting to “pay the bill” for troubles the U.S. has stirred up, and not wanting to assume military risks that could be triggered by the escort.

This is a damaged building photographed in a residential area in Tehran, Iran, on March 23. The residential area had been hit in the U.S.-Israel military action. Xinhua News Agency reporter Shadati photo

Trump has repeatedly blamed NATO allies over this, and on March 26 he further threatened that the U.S.’s military strikes against Iran are a “test” of whether NATO allies support the United States, and that the positions NATO allies have taken have disappointed the United States, which will “hold grudges.”

Foreign media cited the remarks of Haazim Iyad, a political analyst in the Middle East, reporting that the United States’ failure to reopen the Strait of Hormuz was a political and military failure on two fronts, and that “the most serious problem is that the United States can’t convince even its closest allies.”

On March 27, Scholz, in an interview with Germany’s Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, complained that both the timing and the channels used by the U.S. to request military support from NATO allies were “unacceptable.” Scholz said that three weeks earlier he met with Trump at the White House, and that on the 22nd he also spoke with Trump by phone. “I told him, if you want us to help, tell us in advance and say it early, not after the fact through newspapers.”

Scholz emphasized that the escalation of the situation around Iran at present is not “NATO’s war,” and that the U.S. has a “posture” that is “simply unacceptable for us.” He accused Trump of neither de-escalating the situation nor trying to find a peaceful solution, but instead leading to a “sharp escalation,” with the outcome of the fighting “yet to be determined.”

On March 18, German Chancellor Scholz delivered a speech at the German Bundestag in the capital, Berlin. Xinhua News Agency reporter Zhang Haofeng photo

Scholz said that if the fighting stops, Germany is willing to carry out “military protection” of the Strait of Hormuz together with other parties, but this would require international authorization, and the German domestic process would also need parliamentary approval and cabinet consultations to be finalized.

On the 24th, German President Steinmeier said at a commemoration event at the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs that since Trump began his second presidential term, the transatlantic relationship has been deeply fractured. He emphasized that the U.S.-Israel military strikes against Iran undoubtedly violate international law and are a fatal political mistake. On the same day, Katrin Reiche, Germany’s Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy, warned at an energy industry conference that Germany’s “fragile economic recovery” is threatened by spillover effects from the fighting in the Middle East. If the fighting drags on, Germany may face fuel shortages in April or May.

Source: Xinhua News Agency

Author: Wang Yijun

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