US-Europe rift widens as Trump lashes out at NATO allies over Mideast
war
[April 02, 2026]
By JILL LAWLESS,JAMEY KEATEN and JOSH BOAK
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump has been fuming about
NATO, musing about leaving the alliance, ratcheting up his criticism of
European leaders and exposing a wider rift in the trans-Atlantic
alliance — this time over the Iran war.
“NATO treated us very badly, and you have to remember it because they’ll
be treating us badly again if we ever need them,” Trump said Wednesday
at a private White House lunch for the upcoming Easter holiday that was
posted online by a Business Insider reporter.
The president also suggested in an interview to The Telegraph newspaper
in the U.K., published Wednesday, that he could potentially try to leave
the alliance.
Yet in his televised Wednesday evening address to the American people
about the Iran war, Trump chose not to mention NATO by name, suggesting
only that countries that depend on oil flowing through the Strait of
Hormuz “must grab it and cherish it” because the U.S. would not.
Trump's tension over NATO reflects the potentially dangerous
consequences of breaking up the alliance, the limits on his own power to
do so and the careful mending of the relationship performed by fellow
world leaders. But one certainly is that Trump's displeasure with NATO
appears to be a feature of his presidency, rather than an issue that can
be easily settled.
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’s 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's secretary of state, Marco
Rubio, who was a Florida senator at the time.
There are efforts under way to reinforce America's 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.
U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said his government was “fully
committed to NATO” and called it “the single most effective military
alliance the world has ever seen.”
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 “NATO is the most successful military alliance in
history” and stressed that the Senate “will continue to support the
alliance for the peace and protection it provides" the United States,
Europe and the world.
Many European leaders have felt political pressure over the war, which
faces opposition in their countries 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’s oil passes.
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.
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 — after the fighting ends.
Iulia-Sabina Joja, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, alluded
to Trump's exhortation Tuesday for allies to “go get your own oil” in a
social media post insisting it wasn't America's job to secure the
Strait.
“The Europeans are not keen to go into an active warfare situation, to
so-called ‘get’ their energy out of the Strait,” said Joba, a former
deputy project manager at NATO Allied Command Transformation in
Virginia.
Time to ‘reexamine the relationship,' Rubio says
As energy prices have spiked, Trump has called NATO allies “cowards” for
not sending their military ships to the strait. It's an amplification of
his message since his first term that European partners should assume
greater responsibility for their own security.
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Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer speaks during a press
conference at Downing Street in London, Wednesday, April 1, 2026.
(AP Photo/Frank Augstein, Pool)
Speaking Tuesday on Fox News, Rubio said, “I 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.”
Rubio raised questions with interviewer Sean Hannity about whether
NATO has “become a one-way street where America is simply in a
position to defend Europe — but when we need the help of our allies,
they’re going to deny us basing rights and they’re going to deny us
overflight.”
The fraying of NATO could weaken the alliance’s deterrence,
particularly with Russia: It seeks to limit conflict by having
Russian President Vladimir Putin believe that NATO would retaliate
if he decides to one day expand Moscow's war in Ukraine.
The backdrop
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.
As the Iran war 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.
The alliance hasn't intervened or signaled any plan to do so. Rutte
— who has voiced support for Trump and Washington's role in the
alliance — has been focusing mostly on the Russia-Ukraine war since
Ukraine borders four NATO countries.
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't trigger it alone.
Vocal opposition
European leaders have called for the Middle East conflict to stop
and want the U.S. and Iran to return to negotiations over Tehran's
nuclear program, which Washington and Israel see as a threat.
The vocal opposition in Europe to Trump's war against Iran has
started to turn into action.
Spain has closed its airspace to U.S. planes involved in the war.
Early last month, France agreed to let the U.S. Air Force use a base
in southern France after receiving a “full guarantee” from the
United States that planes not involved in carrying out strikes
against Iran would land there.
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.
Franco Pavoncello, a professor of political science at Rome’s John
Cabot University, said that decision might cost Meloni a lot of her
political capital in Washington.
But he said, “The 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.”
U.S. relations with Europe had already soured in recent months over
Trump's call for Greenland — a semiautonomous territory of stalwart
NATO ally Denmark — to become part of the United States, prompting
many EU countries to rally behind Copenhagen.
___
Jill Lawless reported from London and Jamey Keaten 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.
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