By Alexandra Sharp
Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at the United States threatening to leave NATO, how global markets are reacting to the energy crisis, and a joint Japan-France effort to bolster critical mineral cooperation.
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U.S. President Donald Trump attends a bilateral meeting with NATO chief Mark Rutte (not pictured) on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 21.Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
U.S. President Donald Trump is considering trying to pull the United States out of NATO over its members’ unwillingness to join the Iran war. “I was never swayed by NATO,” Trump told the Telegraph on Wednesday. He called the alliance a “paper tiger” for refusing to help U.S. forces reopen the Strait of Hormuz and said that U.S. membership is now “beyond reconsideration.”
This is not the first time that Trump has lashed out at U.S. allies over the Iran war. On Tuesday, he warned countries struggling to acquire jet fuel due to the ongoing energy crisis, such as the United Kingdom, that they’ll “have to start learning how to fight for yourself.” He added that “the U.S.A. won’t be there to help you anymore, just like you weren’t there for us.” U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had a similar message, declining on Tuesday to reaffirm Washington’s commitment to NATO’s Article 5 mutual defense clause.
Trump is expected to state that he is considering leaving NATO during a nationwide address on the Iran war at 9 p.m. local time in Washington. However, under U.S. law, the president does not have the unilateral authority to do this. In 2023, Congress approved legislation that prevents any U.S. president from “suspending, terminating, denouncing, or withdrawing” from NATO without an act of Congress or a resolution passed by two-thirds of the Senate. Then-Sen. Marco Rubio (who now serves as Trump’s secretary of state) co-sponsored the bill, which then-President Joe Biden signed into law as a clause in that year’s National Defense Authorization Act.
“NATO serves as an essential military alliance that protects shared national interests and enhances America’s international presence. Any decision to leave the alliance should be rigorously debated and considered by the U.S. Congress with the input of the American people,” Rubio said when he introduced the bill.
Rubio appeared to refute his own views late Tuesday, telling Fox News that “ultimately, that’s a decision for the president to make.” He acknowledged that he’d been “one of the strongest defenders of NATO” during his time in Congress, but he said that “after this conflict is concluded … we’re going to have to reexamine the value of NATO and that alliance for our country.”
Several NATO members have refused to get directly involved in the Iran war, with some going so far as to prevent U.S. forces from using their bases to attack Iran—a fact that Rubio specifically cited in his comments on Tuesday.
“This is not our war, and we’re not going to get dragged into it,” British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Wednesday. He stressed that “NATO is the single most effective military alliance the world has ever seen” and warned that London’s increasingly volatile relationship with Washington could force the United Kingdom to prioritize closer ties with the rest of Europe.
Such rebukes have not stopped Trump from touting the U.S. military’s successes. A White House official told the Daily Wire on Wednesday that Trump is expected to give an “operational update on the progress of Operation Epic Fury, which is meeting or exceeding all of its benchmarks,” during his 9 p.m. address. This comes despite a lack of evidence that U.S. or Israeli forces have destroyed Iran’s stockpile of near-bomb-grade fuel.
During the address, Trump is also expected to reiterate his prediction of a two- to three-week timeline to end the war. On Wednesday, Trump claimed that Tehran had “just asked the United States of America for a CEASEFIRE!” He added that the United States will consider this offer “when Hormuz Strait is open, free, and clear. Until then, we are blasting Iran into oblivion or, as they say, back to the Stone Ages!!!”
Yet, Iranian officials have denied Trump’s claim. “The Strait of Hormuz will certainly reopen, but not for you,” Ebrahim Azizi, the head of the Iranian Parliament’s National Security Commission, wrote on X.
Tehran’s comment came as Iran and its Lebanese proxy group Hezbollah launched what Israeli media said was the biggest combined missile attack on Israel since the war began on Feb. 28. The attack occurred in concurrence with the first night of the Jewish holiday of Passover.
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