{"id":901141,"date":"2026-04-24T00:16:24","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T05:16:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/24\/u-s-europe-rift-widens-as-trump-lashes-out-at-nato-allies-over-mideast-war\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T00:16:24","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T05:16:24","slug":"u-s-europe-rift-widens-as-trump-lashes-out-at-nato-allies-over-mideast-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/24\/u-s-europe-rift-widens-as-trump-lashes-out-at-nato-allies-over-mideast-war\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S.-Europe Rift Widens As Trump Lashes Out At NATO Allies Over Mideast War"},"content":{"rendered":"
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LONDON (AP) \u2014 U.S. President Donald Trump<\/a> says he\u2019s strongly considering pulling the United States out of NATO, ratcheting up his criticism of European leaders and exposing a wider rift in the trans-Atlantic alliance \u2014 this time over the Iran war<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While Trump\u2019s talk of a possible NATO pullout dates back years, the comments to The Telegraph newspaper in the U.K., published Wednesday, were among the clearest and most disparaging yet \u2014 suggesting that the fracture has deepened perhaps to a point of no return.<\/p>\n

Asked whether he would reconsider U.S. membership in the alliance after the conflict in the Middle East ends, Trump replied, \u201cI would say (it\u2019s) beyond reconsideration.\u201d<\/p>\n

Congress passed legislation in 2023 that would prevent any president from pulling out of NATO without its approval. The Trump administration, during his first term, had insisted the president had such authority on his own. It\u2019s unclear whether Trump would challenge in any way the new law, which is the first of its kind and with the NATO provision specifically championed at the time by Trump\u2019s secretary of state, Marco Rubio, who was a Florida senator at the time.<\/p>\n

There are efforts under way to reinforce America\u2019s relationship with NATO, with its secretary-general, Mark Rutte, scheduled to visit Washington next week. The visit by Rutte was confirmed by a White House official who was not authorized to comment on the yet to be formally announced visit and spoke on the condition of anonymity.<\/p>\n

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\"U.S.<\/picture><\/div>\n
U.S. President Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer look at each other as they shake hands during a press conference at Chequers near Aylesbury, England, Thursday Sept. 18, 2025. Leon Neal\/Pool Photo via AP, File)<\/figcaption>
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via Associated Press<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said his government was \u201cfully committed to NATO\u201d and called it \u201cthe single most effective military alliance the world has ever seen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before a Trump speech later Wednesday, U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, and Sen. Chris Coons, a Delaware Democrat, said in a joint statement that \u201cNATO is the most successful military alliance in history\u201d and stressed that the Senate \u201cwill continue to support the alliance for the peace and protection it provides\u201d the United States, Europe and the world.<\/p>\n

Many European leaders have felt political pressure over the war, which faces opposition in their countries<\/a> and has sent petroleum prices soaring as Iran has effectively shut the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway between Iran and Oman through which about one-fifth of the world\u2019s oil passes.<\/p>\n

The U.K. is working on plans that could help assuage Trump, and Starmer said military planners will work on a postwar security plan for the Strait.<\/p>\n

\n
\"U.S.<\/picture><\/div>\n
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio looks on as he speaks to the press following a G7 Foreign Ministers’ meeting with Partner Countries before his departure at the Bourget airport in Le Bourget, outside Paris, on March 27, 2026. (Photo by Brendan SMIALOWSKI \/ POOL \/ AFP via Getty Images)<\/figcaption>
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BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI via Getty Images<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

On Thursday, British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper will host a virtual meeting of 35 countries that have signed up to help ensure security for shipping in the Strait \u2014 after the fighting ends.<\/p>\n

Iulia-Sabina Joja, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, alluded to Trump\u2019s exhortation Tuesday for allies to \u201cgo get your own oil\u201d in a social media post insisting it wasn\u2019t America\u2019s job to secure the Strait<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Europeans are not keen to go into an active warfare situation, to so-called \u2018get\u2019 their energy out of the Strait,\u201d said Joba, a former deputy project manager at NATO Allied Command Transformation in Virginia.<\/p>\n

Time to \u2018reexamine the relationship,\u2019 Rubio says<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n

As energy prices have spiked, Trump has called NATO allies \u201ccowards\u201d for not sending their military ships to the Strait. It\u2019s an amplification of his message since his first term that European partners should assume greater responsibility for their own security.<\/p>\n

Speaking Tuesday on Fox News<\/a>, Rubio said, \u201cI do think, unfortunately, we are going to have to reexamine whether or not this alliance that has served this country well for a while is still serving that purpose.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rubio raised questions with interviewer Sean Hannity<\/a> about whether NATO has \u201cbecome a one-way street where America is simply in a position to defend Europe \u2014 but when we need the help of our allies, they\u2019re going to deny us basing rights and they\u2019re going to deny us overflight.\u201d<\/p>\n

The fraying of NATO could weaken the alliance\u2019s deterrence, particularly with Russia<\/a>: It seeks to limit conflict by having Russian President Vladimir Putin believe that NATO would retaliate if he decides to one day expand Moscow\u2019s war in Ukraine<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\"President<\/picture><\/div>\n
President Donald Trump and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin talk, Aug. 15, 2025, at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska. (AP Photo\/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File)<\/figcaption>
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via Associated Press<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

The backdrop<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n

NATO is built on Article 5 of its founding treaty, which pledges that an attack on any one member will be met with a response from them all.<\/p>\n

As the Iran war<\/a> has spread, missiles and drones have been fired toward NATO member Turkey and a British military base on Cyprus, fueling speculation about what might prompt NATO to trigger its collective security guarantee and come to their rescue.<\/p>\n

The alliance hasn\u2019t intervened or signaled any plan to do so. Rutte \u2014 who has voiced support for Trump and Washington\u2019s role in the alliance \u2014 has been focusing mostly on the Russia-Ukraine war since Ukraine borders four NATO countries.<\/p>\n

NATO operates uniquely by consensus. All 32 countries must agree for it to make decisions, so political priorities play a role. Even invoking Article 5 requires agreement among the allies. Turkey or the U.K. can\u2019t trigger it alone.<\/p>\n

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\"President<\/picture><\/div>\n
President Donald Trump answers questions after signing an executive order to limit mail-in voting in the Oval Office of the White House on March 31, 2026 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Alex Wong\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption>
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Alex Wong via Getty Images<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Vocal opposition<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n

European leaders have called for the Middle East conflict to stop and want the U.S. and Iran to return to negotiations over Tehran\u2019s nuclear program, which Washington and Israel see as a threat.<\/p>\n

The vocal opposition in Europe to Trump\u2019s war against Iran has started to turn into action.<\/p>\n

Early last month, France agreed to let the U.S. Air Force use a base in southern France after receiving a \u201cfull guarantee\u201d from the United States that planes not involved in carrying out strikes against Iran would land there.<\/p>\n

The government of Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni, long seen as one of the European Union leaders with the best personal ties to Trump, denied permission for U.S. bombers to land at the Sigonella air base in Sicily for one mission related to the Middle East.<\/p>\n

Franco Pavoncello, a professor of political science at Rome\u2019s John Cabot University, said that decision might cost Meloni a lot of her political capital in Washington.<\/p>\n

But he said, \u201cThe Italian government could not be seen by the European allies as too submissive to American interests, as it would have very negative repercussions both at home and in the EU.\u201d<\/p>\n

U.S. relations with Europe had already soured in recent months over Trump\u2019s call for Greenland \u2014 a semiautonomous territory of stalwart NATO ally Denmark \u2014 to become part of the United States, prompting many EU countries to rally behind Copenhagen<\/a>.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Jamey Keaten reported from Geneva. Lorne Cook in Brussels, Giada Zampano in Rome, Sam McNeil in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/section>\n

Buffy Lupo
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LONDON (AP) \u2014 U.S. President Donald Trump says he\u2019s strongly considering pulling the United States out of NATO, ratcheting up his criticism of European leaders and exposing a wider rift in the trans-Atlantic alliance \u2014 this time over the Iran war. While Trump\u2019s talk of a possible NATO pullout dates back years, the comments to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":901142,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3098,32799],"tags":[9985,6369],"class_list":{"0":"post-901141","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-europe","8":"category-widens","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-widens"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/901141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=901141"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/901141\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/901142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=901141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=901141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=901141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}