President Donald Trump says he feels vindicated in his years of questioning the fidelity of America’s Western alliances because when he did call them to rally around the flag, they refused to answer, saying nations like Britain should have rightfully come with enthusiasm.
The United States is encouraging countries whose economies rely on the free flow of global commerce to stand up and take a hand in preserving maritime security, President Donald Trump said on Monday afternoon, expressing his distress at America’s most cherished allies turning away from Washington’s call to rally around the flag. Stating the U.S. military had already destroyed all of Iran’s conventional military capability and that the Strait of Hormuz — through which a great deal of the world’s annual oil production flows — now needs an international policing effort, President Trump said many countries are more dependent on the region than the U.S.
He said: “We strongly encourage other nations whose economies rely on the Strait far more than ours. We get less than one per cent of our oil from the Strait, and some countries get much more. Japan gets 95 per cent, China gets 90 per cent, many of the Europeans get quite a bit… so we want them to come and help us with the Strait… numerous countries have told us they are on the way. Some are very enthusiastic about it, and some aren’t”.
While President Trump said several times that he didn’t want to name names and risk embarrassing or endangering America’s allies by outing them as security volunteers or shirkers, he dropped several hints. He said, for instance, of one country that declined America’s invitation: “We have some countries where we have 45,000 great soldiers protecting them from harm’s way”. According to recent Department of War figures, the only countries with U.S. deployments of that scale are Germany and Japan, and both have rejected participation.
President Trump also repeatedly emphasised the importance of allies contributing minesweepers to keep the Strait of Hormuz open, a critical factor given its narrow waters and vulnerability. Mine countermeasures were a leading British competency and one of the Royal Navy’s key contributions to the NATO alliance during the Cold War. Until recently, London kept a small squadron of dedicated mine hunters on station in Bahrain, but that decades-long deployment ended earlier this year.
Britain’s Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer addressed the nation on Monday morning and, between implying that President Trump’s strikes on Iran were illegal, irrational, and pointless, said he had not authorised any British military involvement, stating, “we’re not at the point of decisions yet”.
This lack of enthusiasm, even outright refusal, has evidently greatly disappointed President Trump, who blasted: “Some are countries that have helped for many, many years. We’ve protected them from horrible outside sources. And they weren’t that enthusiastic. And the level of enthusiasm, it matters to me… I think we have one or two who will not do it, who we have been protecting for about 40 years, at tens of billions of dollars… why are we protecting countries that don’t protect us? I’ve always thought that was a weakness of NATO, we were going to protect them, but I always said when in need, they weren’t going to protect us.”
Yet he isn’t bending the arms of European powers, Trump said, because he wants to know who America’s true friends are, and he’s waiting to see who comes forward with enthusiasm. He said: “I don’t do a hard sell on them because my attitude is we don’t need anybody, we’re the strongest military in the world… but it’s interesting. I’m almost doing it, not because we need them, but because I want to see how they’re going to react. Because I’ve been saying for years that if we really did need them, they won’t be there.”
Those nations should be “jumping to help us”, President Trump said. Asked specifically by an attending French journalist about what conversations he’d had with President Emmanuel Macron, Trump gave the most positive response he’d given about any country so far, even though it remains evident France is still uncommitted to sending warships to keep the Straits open.
Teasing France, President Trump said:
I have spoken to him [Macron]. On a scale of 0-10, I’d say he’s been an eight. Not perfect, but it’s France. We don’t expect perfect… I think he’s gonna help. I spoke to him yesterday.
In line for the harshest criticism, and evidently because the gulf between President Trump’s expectations for his ancestral homeland and America’s oldest ally, and the reality of the attitude of Britain’s present left-wing government, was Sir Keir Starmer. The President explained:
I was very surprised with the United Kingdom, because the United Kingdom two weeks ago I said why don’t you send some ships over? And he really didn’t want to do it!
I said you don’t want to do it? We’ve been with you, you’re our oldest ally, and we spend a lot of money on NATO and things to protect you. We’re protecting them, we’re working with them on Ukraine… I think it’s terrible. I was very surprised. I told him, we requested two aircraft carriers which they have, and he didn’t really want to do it
… So I was… not happy with the UK. I think they will be involved, yeah, maybe. But they should be involved enthusiastically! We’ve been protecting these countries for years with NATO, because NATO is us.
President Trump also found fault with Sir Keir’s leadership style. In contrast to Starmer’s address to the British nation this morning, where he portrayed himself as a strong, independent leader who wouldn’t blindly follow America into a Middle Eastern war, President Trump painted a picture of Starmer as blundering and hidebound by bureaucracy. He said of his Sunday telephone call with Prime Minister Starmer that:
The Prime Minister of the UK yesterday, told me ‘I’m meeting with my team to make a determination’. I said you don’t need to meet with a team, you’re the Prime Minister. You can make your own [decisions], why do you need to meet with your team to find out if you’re going to send some minesweepers? You don’t have to meet with your team.
In comments from both the Prime Minister and the Minister of Defence on Monday, Britain’s international law-focused government has made clear it will not be a first mover in policing the Straits of Hormuz and is looking for “as many nations as possible” to get involved before taking any action.
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