Donald Trump warnt davor, dass der Nato eine „sehr schlechte Zukunft“ bevorsteht, wenn die Verbündeten den USA im Iran nicht helfen

[Unpaywalled Link](https://www.archivebuttons.com/articles?article=https://www.ft.com/content/1ca6d121-760b-4ec5-b6ad-514fdaa94873#google_vignette)

Submission Statement:

In an 8 minute call to the Financial Times US President Donald Trump said NATO could face a „very bad“ future if members didn’t contribute forces to help re open the Strait of Hormuz, in an apparent attempt to blackmail countries into joining the war by threatening to withdraw American support for NATO. He also said he might delay a planned state visit to China if it also did not contribute.

Trump specifically mentioned that the US is seeking minesweepers, as the US Navy has very modest anti mine capabilities.

The timing and unusual way that the message was delivered suggests that his previously reported plan to get other countries to commit resources to opening the Strait is struggling to find support.

The short call also highlighted some of idiosyncrasies of Trump’s understanding of the world. At one point he appeared to imply that European countries had an obligation to support the US in the Persian Gulf because of past US support for Ukraine, and failing to do would validate his claim that NATO was „a one way street“. This framing ignores the facts that (1) Trump cut off all military and financial aid to Ukraine upon assuming office, and has applied enormous pressure to try to force it to accept an unfavourable peace deal with Russia, (2) Trump started the war without consulting his NATO allies, and as the initiator has no resort to NATO’s mutual defence provisions, and (3) the Persian Gulf isn’t even within NATO’s area of operations, as specified in the North Atlantic Charter.

Asked about Russia supplying satellite intelligence to aid Iran in targetting American and Israeli assets Trump demurred, as he has in the past, basically saying it would be unfair to criticize Russian actions because the US has supplied intelligence to Ukraine.

The call to the FT comes as the Trump administration is under mounting pressure to prevent the Gulf crisis from triggering global economic dislocation. As the article notes: „International oil prices hit $106 a barrel on Sunday evening, up about 45 per cent since the start of the war.“

It feels very much like this is JD Vance’s contribution to the proceedings

It’s a good way for nato to make sure they’re on their own when the orcs come knocking.

But I can’t blame them, it’s not their war for the most part.