US President Donald Trump lashed out Tuesday at \u201cfoolish\u201d NATO over Iran, saying the United States needs no help after allies rebuffed his calls to join efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump said most US allies had rejected his push to escort ships through the crucial waterway, with French President Emmanuel Macron saying his country would \u201cnever\u201d do so until the situation was calmer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI think NATO is making a very foolish mistake,\u201d Trump told reporters as he hosted Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin in the Oval Office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019ve long said that I wonder whether or not NATO would ever be there for us. So this was a great test.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But Trump insisted that Washington was ready to go it alone against Iran, saying that even Nato allies had agreed that Tehran needed to be confronted over its nuclear programme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t need too much help. We don\u2019t need any help,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Minutes before the meeting, Trump made a lengthy post on his Truth Social platform saying US forces \u201cno longer need\u201d military help in the Iran war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump said that \u201cmost\u201d Nato allies had said they did not want to get involved, along with Japan, Australia and South Korea, describing the decades-old military alliance as a \u201cone-way street.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBecause we have had such Military Success, we no longer \u2018need,\u2019 or desire, the NATO Countries\u2019 assistance \u2014 WE NEVER DID!\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The 79-year-old Republican has long criticised Nato, and since returning to power in January 2025, he has pushed its members into increasing their defence spending.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Asked if he would reconsider the US relationship with Nato as he has suggested in the past, Trump said it was \u201ccertainly something that we should think about\u201d but added: \u201cI have nothing currently in mind.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But he repeated his criticisms of foreign counterparts over the issue, saying British Prime Minister Keir Starmer \u201chasn\u2019t been supportive, and I think it\u2019s a big mistake.\u201d Of Macron, he merely said that \u201che\u2019ll be out of office soon.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The US leader had suggested on Monday that both Paris and London would be ready to help, and said other countries he did not name were already on board.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But Macron insisted on Tuesday that France would not participate in operations to open the strait in the current context, but once the situation becomes \u201ccalmer\u201d it could participate in an \u201cescort system\u201d alongside other nations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Britain has also waved off Washington\u2019s request for assistance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump, meanwhile, kept up his mixed messaging about the length and goals of the US-Israeli war on Iran, which has expanded dramatically across the Middle East and caused global oil prices to surge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said that Iran\u2019s \u201cactual top leader was killed yesterday,\u201d in an apparent reference to Israel\u2019s claim that it had assassinated powerful national security chief Ali Larijani.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Iran was \u201cjust a military operation to me\u201d and \u201cwe\u2019ll be leaving in pretty much the very near future,\u201d Trump said, but he remained vague about his political plan for the country after the war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to try to get people who are going to run it well,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
US-Israeli strikes on February 28 assassinated Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the republic\u2019s long-serving supreme leader, and Iran has named his son, Mojtaba Khamenei, to replace him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n