Nato chief says Trump ‘clearly disappointed’ by US allies’ refusal to join Iran war

Nato chief says Trump ‘clearly disappointed’ by US allies’ refusal to join Iran war

 

Mark Rutte praises ‘very frank’ talks but declines to say if president discussed potential withdrawal from alliance

 

Lauren Gambino and agency

Thu 9 Apr 2026 01.53 BST

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/apr/08/nato-mark-rutte-trump-iran-war

 

Mark Rutte, the secretary general of Nato, has said Donald Trump was “clearly disappointed” that the US’s allies had refused to join its war against Iran, following a closed-door meeting in Washington on Wednesday.

 

Speaking to CNN after his private meeting with the US president, Rutte declined to say directly whether Trump raised his threat to withdraw from the military alliance over the Iran war, but described the exchange as a “very frank, very open” discussion between “two good friends”.

 

The meeting between Trump and Rutte came at a delicate moment, less than a day after the US and Iran agreed to a two-week ceasefire deal that includes opening the strait of Hormuz. The fragile agreement was struck after Trump threatened to target Iran’s civilian infrastructure, warning that a “whole civilization will die” if Tehran failed to allow safe passage through the strait by a Tuesday evening deadline imposed by the president.

 

Prior to the meeting, Trump had escalated his criticism of the 77-year-old alliance, calling it a “paper tiger” and suggesting the US may consider leaving after Nato member countries ignored his call for military assistance to help reopen the critical waterway – the closure of which has sent global oil prices soaring.

 

“He clearly told me what he thought of what happened over the last couple of weeks,” Rutte said in a CNN interview, declining to answer specific questions about whether Trump expressed a desire to leave Nato. “It is a nuanced picture.”

 

Though Rutte and Trump have had a relatively warm relationship in the past, the visit did little to ease the president’s disdain for the transatlantic military allies who did not back Washington during the Iran war.

 

In a post on Truth Social after the meeting, Trump wrote: “NATO WASN’T THERE WHEN WE NEEDED THEM, AND THEY WON’T BE THERE IF WE NEED THEM AGAIN. REMEMBER GREENLAND, THAT BIG, POORLY RUN, PIECE OF ICE!!!” Trump had said earlier this week that his latest frustrations with the alliance “began” with their opposition to his desired takeover of Greenland.

 

Earlier on Wednesday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt acknowledged that Trump had discussed leaving Nato. “I think it’s something the president will be discussing in a couple of hours with Secretary General Rutte,” Leavitt said.

 

Trump has been a longtime critic of Nato, and in his first term had suggested he had the authority on his own to leave the alliance. Congress, however, passed a law in 2023 that prevents any US president from pulling out of Nato without its approval.

 

The crux of the commitment that the 32 Nato member countries make is a mutual defense agreement in which an attack on one is considered an attack on them all. The only time it has been activated was in 2001, to support the United States in the wake of the September 11 attacks.

 

Despite that, Trump has complained during his war of choice with Iran that Nato has shown it will not be there for the US.

 

Before the meeting, Republican senator Mitch McConnell issued a statement in support of the alliance, saying: “Following the September 11 attacks, Nato allies sent their young servicemembers to fight and die alongside America’s own in Afghanistan and Iraq.” McConnell, who sits on a committee overseeing defense spending, urged Trump to be “clear and consistent” and said it was not in America’s interest to “spend more time nursing grudges with allies who share our interests than deterring adversaries who threaten us”.

 

It’s unclear if the Trump administration would challenge the law barring a president from pulling out of Nato. When the law passed, it was championed by Trump’s current secretary of state, Marco Rubio, who at the time was a senator from Florida.

 

Rubio met separately with Rutte on Wednesday morning at the state department. In a statement, the state department said Rubio and Rutte had discussed the war with Iran, along with US efforts to negotiate an end to the Russia-Ukraine war and “increasing coordination and burden shifting with Nato allies”.

 

The alliance has been rattled over the past year as Trump has reduced US military support for Ukraine in the war against Russia and threatened to seize Greenland from Denmark.

 

But Trump’s badgering of Nato intensified after the Iran war began at the end of February. The president insisted that securing the strait of Hormuz was not the US’s job but the responsibility of countries that depend on the flow of oil through it.

 

“Go to the strait and just take it,” Trump said last week.

 

Trump was also angered as Nato allies Spain and France forbade or restricted use of their airspace or joint military facilities for the US in the Iran war. They and other nations, however, agreed to help with an international coalition to open the strait of Hormuz when the conflict ends.

 

British prime minister Keir Starmer, who has been a particular source of Trump’s frustration, is set to travel to the Gulf to support the ceasefire. The UK has been working on developing a post-conflict security plan for the strait.

 

Associated Press contributed reporting