US Threatens To Reconsider Its Commitments To Its European NATO Allies.

Washington DC; March 2026: US Secretary of State and National Security Advisor Marco Rubio threatened that Washington might reconsider its commitments to European NATO member states after the war with Iran ends. He stated that the US administration is disappointed that some European countries are preventing the US military from using their territory to attack Iran. President Donald Trump called them “cowards” for this and NATO a “paper tiger”.

However, the US cannot simply leave the alliance: Congress, back in 2023, prohibited the US president from making such a decision without the approval of two-thirds of the Senate, following the initiative of two senators. One of them was Marco Rubio.

Marco Rubio has discussed the prospect of reconsidering relations with European NATO member countries in an interview with the media outlets. “The President and our country will have to reconsider all of this after the operation against Iran is completed. If the essence of NATO is only for us to defend Europe in the event of an attack, but at the same time the Europeans deny us basing rights at their military facilities, including airbases when we need them, that’s not a very good plan. It’s difficult to remain involved in such a plan”, he stated.

Earlier, it was reported that Spain had banned American aircraft participating in the war against Iran from using its airbases and airspace. Italy prevented American bombers from using the joint American-Italian naval air base at Sigonella in Sicily for attacks on Iran. And France, as Donald Trump has complained, prevented American aircraft carrying military cargo to Israel from flying over its territory.

Several other European NATO member countries, following criticism from Washington, have not ruled out the possibility of assisting the US in its war against Iran, but have made it clear that their assistance will be minimal.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz stated that the conflict in the Middle East “has nothing to do with NATO”, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer assured that he will not allow his country to be drawn into a “widespread war”.

After this, Donald Trump declared himself “very disappointed” in the Europeans. “The NATO allies complain about the high oil prices they’re forced to pay, but they won’t help open the Strait of Hormuz. It’s so easy for them to do it and with so little risk. They’re cowards, and we’ll remember that”, he had warned. NATO also got its share of criticism from the American president. “I’ve always said NATO is a paper tiger. I’ve always said we help them, but they’ll never help us. If something serious happens, I don’t think it will, but if something does happen, I guarantee you they won’t be around”, Donald Trump lamented recently.

Today, on March 31st, the White House announced that the United States would no longer assist countries that refused to participate in the operation to unblock the Strait of Hormuz. “You will have to learn to fight for yourselves, the US will no longer be there to help you, just as you were not there for us”, he wrote on his social network Truth Social, without specifying what this means in practice.

During his first presidential term (2017–2021), Donald Trump repeatedly criticised European NATO member states for what he called insufficient defence spending. At one point, he even seriously considered withdrawing the United States from NATO and wanted to announce it at an alliance summit, but his advisers (primarily John Bolton, who described the events of those days in his memoirs) persuaded him not to do so. Subsequently, European NATO member states promised to significantly increase their military spending.

In the current situation, American officials are not yet openly discussing the US withdrawal from NATO, although Marco Rubio hinted at something similar: “NATO cannot exist without the US. The alliance must be mutually beneficial. It cannot be a one-way street. Let’s hope we can fix this”.

According to several media reports, Washington is currently discussing a less radical option: providing defence guarantees and the opportunity to participate in collective decision-making only to those alliance member countries that are making efforts to approach the defence spending target of at least 5% of their GDP.

Among the main laggards in this regard are Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Slovenia, and Montenegro, which spend approximately 2% of their GDP on military purposes. The United States is interested in increasing this figure, not least because European countries spend a significant portion of their defense spending on purchasing American weapons.

Even if the US administration decides to withdraw from NATO, doing so will be far more difficult now than it was during Donald Trump’s first term. In 2023, when approving the Pentagon budget for the following year, the US Congress included a special amendment to the relevant bill prohibiting the head of state from declaring the US withdrawal from the North Atlantic Alliance without the consent of two-thirds of the Senate. This means 67 senators. Republicans currently hold 53 seats in the Senate, and judging by their statements, not all of them would be willing to support radical measures against NATO.

Before this amendment was passed, it was believed that the US president could unilaterally decide on the country’s NATO membership – which was confirmed by a special opinion from the US Department of Justice in 2020. To prevent any White House incumbent from withdrawing the US from the alliance, senators pushed through the aforementioned amendment in 2023, when it was already more or less clear that Donald Trump would again run as a Republican. One of the two sponsors of its passage was then-Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, who called NATO “an important military alliance that protects shared national interests and enhances the US international presence”.

Team Maverick.