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Posted on 03/27/2026 9:00:07 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
On April 4, Nato will be 77 years old. The chance that America will be counted among the celebrants when the birthday celebrations roll around is somewhere between nil and zero.
President Trump had long predicted that if America needed help, Nato would not come to its aid, even though, as he sees it, the United States has spent billions of dollars over decades defending Europe from Russian aggression. And when America did need help in the war against Iran – a few mine sweepers, please, sirs – the answer “no” came back in several languages.
Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer heard the call of what The Spectator’s Tim Shipman calls his “soul-deep belief in international law’ and denied America the use of the military base operated jointly by the US and the UK on Diego Garcia. Starmer since modified that absolute refusal with a carefully circumscribed permission, allowing use of the base for “defensive purposes” only, while continuing to promise he will not involve Britain in America’s war on Iran. That comes, as Trump sees it, too late, “We don’t need people that join Wars after we’ve already won.”
Trump says he is disappointed at the “shocking” refusal to allow America the use of Royal Air Force bases. The President has at least formally invited King Charles III to visit Washington in April, as has long been mooted. If Starmer has clung to office until then, he can count on a seat well below the salt, absent a pardon from the President.
German defense minister Boris Pistorius rejected Trump’s call for assistance with “This is not our war, we have not started it… To make it crystal clear, we don’t want to get sucked into that war.” Now that Iran has unveiled a missile that can reach Berlin, and Germany is feeling the consequences of the disruption of traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, he might be permitting himself a re-think.
Pistorius might find that he is a defense minister left out in the cold once Trump, who has been known to nurse grievances and believes vengeance is a virtue, turns from war to tariffs and to refocusing America’s military and financial alliances on the Middle East rather than on Europe. For one thing, even Germany will not reach its new 3.5 percent Nato spending target by 2029. Pistorius now predicts 3.05 percent by that date.
Others do not favor such lavish spending on their defense, and are in even less of a hurry when it comes to raising their contributions to Nato. Here is a list of countries and the plans they have made:
Belgium, 2.5 percent by 2034; Britain, 2.5 percent by 2027; France, 2.3 percent by 2028; Italy, 2 percent by 2028. Spain has a special deal with Nato to only contribute 2.1 percent, “no more, no less,” says Pedro Sanchez, Spain’s Prime Minister, who has denied America the use of the jointly-operated Rota and Morón bases in southern Spain.
Nato secretary general Mark Rutte saw no irony when, on March 26, he congratulated Nato members on recognizing the need for a greater contribution to the alliance. Many will not even reach the old 2 percent of GDP target, much less the new 3.5 percent target.
“Without the U.S.A., NATO IS A PAPER TIGER,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post. “COWARDS, and we will REMEMBER.” Even if Germany meets its 3.05 percent target, it will still need soldiers. An estimated 50,000 young people have taken to the streets in “school strikes against the war” to protest their government’s plans to introduce voluntary military service, with conscription possible if recruitment goals are not met.
One young man told the press, “I don’t want to serve in the army. I would not go to defend Germany. If you had to choose between Germany fighting or being led by Putin, then I would choose Putin.” Putin, who is fluent in German after years of service in Germany as a member of the KGB, must relish such reports in the German press and adjust his schedule for the re-establishment of the Soviet Union accordingly.
In short, the Europeans told President Trump that, as American wrestler Bobby Heenan once put it, a friend in need is a pest. Trump has vacillated between admitting he wants, even needs, help and boasting that he does not.
What the “transactional” President really wanted from America’s European allies was an offer of help without being asked, a quid pro quo to which he believes America is entitled in return for bearing a disproportionate share of Nato’s costs. As was the case with Britain’s position concerning use of Diego Garcia, the belated and carefully circumscribed offers of help from other allies were too late and too little in Trump’s view. As Trump told an interviewer: “We’ve protected them from horrible outside sources, and they weren’t that enthusiastic [about helping us]. And the level of enthusiasm matters to me.”
It matters enough so that Trump, who cannot legally exit Nato without congress, will find ways to use his power as commander-in-chief to engineer a de facto exit by redeploying troops and assets now devoted to Nato to areas of more direct concern, most particularly the increasingly wealthy post-Iran Middle East and on countering the threat from China.
So when Trump’s invitation to the Nato birthday bash arrives, the response may well be: “Best wishes, but I have pressing engagements elsewhere.”
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A lot of drama here unless Trump joins Russia’s side of the Ukraine War of course that isn’t going to happen.
The POTUS creating a fake issue distraction from the economic consequences of the Iran War, the Iran War, the Iran War.
Blaming others is what an Antisemite does when he blames Jews for his problems.
What the hell are you talking about?
Setting the stage for our withdrawal. Mansfield amendment.
The EU Rutte has already told the EU while in session that they are nothing without the U.S. in Nato...It is just reality...without the United Staes of America and it’s armed forces Nato is nothing.
Chinese Communist Party/PLA would love those military bases in Europe. Be careful what you wish for.
“President Trump had long predicted that if America needed help, Nato would not come to its aid”
Silliness. We planned and joined into the Israeli sneak attack on Iran and did not include NATO before we did so. Then he expects them to join his war? That is not the NATO rule, that if a member launches a war, everyone else has to join in.
I’m talking about what I’m talking about 101 dollars a barrel for oil is something not to talk about so we blame NATO for that mess instead of ourselves like a disobedient rebellious child.
But we happen to be the President of the United States.
If he’s really upset with NATO join Russia to conquer Ukraine since the Euros rage against Russia but no this is distracting talk with no action behind it.
Oil closed over 101 dollars a barrel today lets keep talking about it.
Chinese Communist Party/PLA would love those military bases in Europe. Be careful what you wish for.>>>> Are the military bases owned by NATO. I thot they were our bases via WWII occupation.
All Europa does is hold our coat while we get into a fight.
I’ll tell you what the Europeans are saying in the comments on the Daily Mail: They are saying Trump doesn’t seem to understand that NATO is a defensive organization.
What? Will nato regret rejecting President DJT?
They’re choosing a Muslim reign. When they all convert to Islam they’ll miss their freedom.
Well the last few days somebody has been helping Ukraine destroy many of Russia’s largest and most important oil fields and refineries, at a time when oil is skyrocketing in price. For such I would guess Trump will drop a bomb on zelinsky’s head.
You do not tell the enemy what you are going to do!
Democrats and RINOs are our enemy.
While I agree with some of the sentiment here, there are serious flat out lies in the article. For example, EVERY NATO member is above 2% of GDP for defense spending, now. Check NATO’s own documentation.
Now, how effective that spending is and how well it is directed is quite questionable. The UK’s actual deployable capabilities appear to have actually significantly slipped since they started spending more money on defense... :-(
He didn’t ask them to attack Iran. You’re just twisting things around.
Or, as Heinlein put it, no group of over 3 people can keep a secret (which he later modified to essentially restate it as: any group of over 3 people has to have very tight organization and control of information to be secure. Then he delved into the ways to accomplish that. See: The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress. :-) )
While I do not consider all the Euros to be our enemy - that's absurd - there are definitely elements in Europe who are our enemy and the Euros even more certainly do not have the organization and control to keep information such as the timing of a planned US attack on Iran, secure. Honestly, the idea this was a "sneak attack" is even more absurd. We have some FReepers who definitely need to check their meds' dosage or... something. And, not telling an opponent the exact time you will attack them does not make an attack a "sneak" attack either.
Everyone capable of analyzing such things looked at our buildup in the ME, Trump's repeated warnings both in negotiations, and publicly, and most of all the defensive measures we were taking at our bases within (known) missile range of Iran, and concluded that without major concessions in negotiations, that the Iranians were VERY unlikely to submit to, we would attack, most likely sooner than later. Anyone saying this was some sort of surprise is either lying, was essentially not watching (or listening), or is seriously deficient in capability of deductive reasoning.
You know, I'm slow sometimes too: I just now realized the 1st half of DesertRhino's screen name is a verb.
I can see tiny violin sales are up.
“President Trump had long predicted that if America needed help, Nato would not come to its aid, even though, as he sees it, the United States has spent billions of dollars over decades defending Europe from Russian aggression. And when America did need help in the war against Iran – a few mine sweepers, please, sirs – the answer “no” came back in several languages. “>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Yerp must look after itself and spent its own blood and treasure to create its own security.
Yet Obama convinced NATO to wax imperialistically, and invade Libyah, destroying the Khadaffi Regime, and bombing the Great Man MAde River irrigation system which threw bundreds of thousands into the brink of starvation, so what transpired? The fact is that Europeis run by socialists who do not believe in borders, and who subscribe to a path of liberal fascism, and so they have that in common with Obama and his regime.
Donald Trump is a populist and a man who puts America first, and who is an enemy of Klaus Schwab inspired demograpbhic surrender to unregulated immigration into socialist Europe. Trump represents their economic defeat, and an end to their Progressive Liberal Fascist Utopia.
NATO will never come to the aid of America as long as its member nations are run by socialist liberal fascists . SO now Europe must oust its smug mandarins, just as Canada and the the UK must now do. Trump has exposed them all as cowards and psychopomps.
ONly Japan stands with America.And so we are glad of it.
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