WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump dropped his push Tuesday for U.S. allies to join in protecting the Strait of Hormuz from Iranian threats — an about-face that came just one day after he called upon nations to “get involved” so oil tankers can safely navigate the crucial shipping lane.
First on social media and later in an Oval Office meeting, Trump said the outside military support he has been working to muster is no longer necessary in the war, which the U.S. and Israel launched against Iran on Feb. 28.
“We don’t need any help, actually,” Trump said in an exchange with reporters in the Oval Office as he hosted Ireland’s prime minister, Micheál Martin.
“President Trump has great relationships with foreign leaders around the world. At the same time, he has long called attention to the disproportional dynamics that have been enabled by weak Presidents for decades — including the United States’ extensive financial support of NATO and unfair trading practices that hurt our farmers and workers,” White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said in a statement. “The President was resoundingly elected to put America First, and he will continue to bolster US national security through Operation Epic Fury, with or without NATO.”
Trump had gotten a chilly response from U.S. allies he’d tried to enlist in a joint effort to police the strait, which has been effectively shut down in the face of Iranian attacks that have jeopardized oil supplies.
On Monday, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said, “This is not our war; we have not started it.” Before Trump’s Oval Office meeting Tuesday, French President Emmanuel Macron said his country would “never take part in operations to open or free the Strait of Hormuz in the current context” but was prepared to play a role once the fighting stopped.
Asked about Macron’s statement, Trump said he “will be out of office very soon.” (Macron’s term ends in May 2027.)
Trump was measured in discussing the dustup within the NATO alliance, though one of his confidants, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., wrote on X that he had spoken to Trump about it and 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," Graham wrote, saying he shared Trump's anger.
Trump had talked repeatedly in recent days about assembling a coalition that would help repel Iranian attacks against oil tankers and other ships navigating the strait, a narrow passageway that has become a choke point for the world’s oil.
The war has triggered a spike in gas prices, creating political problems for Trump at home ahead of the congressional midterm elections in November.
Trump said Monday at the White House that “numerous countries have told me they are on their way” to help. He said Secretary of State Marco Rubio would be making an announcement. No announcement or list has yet been released.
As for the holdouts, he said, “we strongly encourage the other nations to get involved with us and get involved quickly and with great enthusiasm.”
The Iran war amounts to a test of Trump’s "America First" approach to global conflict. He has long been skeptical of military alliances, warning that the U.S. builds a protective umbrella around other nations without any guarantee that those beneficiaries of American power would come to its aid when needed.
That position has alienated NATO countries that have sent troops to U.S.-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, only to see them die in action.
The one time NATO invoked the Article 5 mutual security guarantee was in defense of the U.S. following the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.
“Trump’s bullying and tendency to negotiate by megaphone don’t go down well with European allies,” Peter Westmacott, a former British ambassador to the U.S., told NBC News.
In 1990-91, President George H.W. Bush knitted together a broad coalition of nations to confront Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi dictator, before he launched Operation Desert Storm.
