Journalists asked Trump whether he would reconsider U.S.
membership in NATO after the war in the Middle East.
“Oh yeah, I’d say that’s no longer open to reconsideration.
NATO never convinced me. I always knew they were a paper tiger, and Putin, by
the way, knows that too,” he said.
Trump also criticized U.S. partners for not helping
Washington in the conflict with Iran, even though the United States is helping
Ukraine in its war against Russia.
“We got there automatically, including Ukraine. Ukraine was
not our problem. It was a test, and we were there for them, and we would always
be there for them. They were not there for us.”
On March 31, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that
after the end of the war with Iran, Washington would likely have to rethink its
relationship with NATO.
Earlier, Trump said the United States did not need help from
NATO allies in the war against the Iranian regime and added that he “always
knew the alliance would never help the United States.”
“However, I’m not surprised by what they did, because I
always saw NATO, which we spend hundreds of billions of dollars on every year
to protect those very countries, as a one-way street — we defend them, but they
do nothing for us, including when times are tough,” the U.S. president wrote on
March 17.