US-Europe Rift Widens on Trump Comments04/02 06:25

   

   WASHINGTON (AP) -- U.S. President Donald Trump has been fuming about NATO, 
musing about leaving the alliance, ratcheting up his criticism of European 
leaders and exposing a wider rift in the trans-Atlantic alliance -- this time 
over the Iran war.

   "NATO treated us very badly, and you have to remember it because they'll be 
treating us badly again if we ever need them," Trump said Wednesday at a 
private White House lunch for the upcoming Easter holiday that was posted 
online by a Business Insider reporter.

   The president also suggested in an interview to The Telegraph newspaper in 
the U.K., published Wednesday, that he could potentially try to leave the 
alliance.

   Yet in his televised Wednesday evening address to the American people about 
the Iran war, Trump chose not to mention NATO by name, suggesting only that 
countries that depend on oil flowing through the Strait of Hormuz "must grab it 
and cherish it" because the U.S. would not.

   Trump's tension over NATO reflects the potentially dangerous consequences of 
breaking up the alliance, the limits on his own power to do so and the careful 
mending of the relationship performed by fellow world leaders. But one 
certainly is that Trump's displeasure with NATO appears to be a feature of his 
presidency, rather than an issue that can be easily settled.

   Congress passed legislation in 2023 that would prevent any president from 
pulling out of NATO without its approval. The Trump administration, during his 
first term, had insisted the president had such authority on his own. It's 
unclear whether Trump would challenge in any way the new law, which is the 
first of its kind and with the NATO provision specifically championed at the 
time by Trump's secretary of state, Marco Rubio, who was a Florida senator at 
the time.

   There are efforts under way to reinforce America's relationship with NATO, 
with its secretary-general, Mark Rutte, scheduled to visit Washington next 
week. The visit by Rutte was confirmed by a White House official who was not 
authorized to comment on the yet to be formally announced visit and spoke on 
the condition of anonymity.

   U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said his government was "fully committed to 
NATO" and called it "the single most effective military alliance the world has 
ever seen."

   Before a Trump speech later Wednesday, U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky 
Republican, and Sen. Chris Coons, a Delaware Democrat, said in a joint 
statement that "NATO is the most successful military alliance in history" and 
stressed that the Senate "will continue to support the alliance for the peace 
and protection it provides" the United States, Europe and the world.

   Many European leaders have felt political pressure over the war, which faces 
opposition in their countries and has sent petroleum prices soaring as Iran has 
effectively shut the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway between Iran and 
Oman through which about one-fifth of the world's oil passes.

   The U.K. is working on plans that could help assuage Trump, and Starmer said 
military planners will work on a postwar security plan for the Strait.

   On Thursday, British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper will host a virtual 
meeting of 35 countries that have signed up to help ensure security for 
shipping in the Strait -- after the fighting ends.

   Iulia-Sabina Joja, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, alluded to 
Trump's exhortation Tuesday for allies to "go get your own oil" in a social 
media post insisting it wasn't America's job to secure the Strait.

   "The Europeans are not keen to go into an active warfare situation, to 
so-called 'get' their energy out of the Strait," said Joba, a former deputy 
project manager at NATO Allied Command Transformation in Virginia.

   Time to 'reexamine the relationship,' Rubio says

   As energy prices have spiked, Trump has called NATO allies "cowards" for not 
sending their military ships to the strait. It's an amplification of his 
message since his first term that European partners should assume greater 
responsibility for their own security.

   Speaking Tuesday on Fox News, Rubio said, "I do think, unfortunately, we are 
going to have to reexamine whether or not this alliance that has served this 
country well for a while is still serving that purpose."

   Rubio raised questions with interviewer Sean Hannity about whether NATO has 
"become a one-way street where America is simply in a position to defend Europe 
-- but when we need the help of our allies, they're going to deny us basing 
rights and they're going to deny us overflight."

   The fraying of NATO could weaken the alliance's deterrence, particularly 
with Russia: It seeks to limit conflict by having Russian President Vladimir 
Putin believe that NATO would retaliate if he decides to one day expand 
Moscow's war in Ukraine.

   The backdrop

   NATO is built on Article 5 of its founding treaty, which pledges that an 
attack on any one member will be met with a response from them all.

   As the Iran war has spread, missiles and drones have been fired toward NATO 
member Turkey and a British military base on Cyprus, fueling speculation about 
what might prompt NATO to trigger its collective security guarantee and come to 
their rescue.

   The alliance hasn't intervened or signaled any plan to do so. Rutte -- who 
has voiced support for Trump and Washington's role in the alliance -- has been 
focusing mostly on the Russia-Ukraine war since Ukraine borders four NATO 
countries.

   NATO operates uniquely by consensus. All 32 countries must agree for it to 
make decisions, so political priorities play a role. Even invoking Article 5 
requires agreement among the allies. Turkey or the U.K. can't trigger it alone.

   Vocal opposition

   European leaders have called for the Middle East conflict to stop and want 
the U.S. and Iran to return to negotiations over Tehran's nuclear program, 
which Washington and Israel see as a threat.

   The vocal opposition in Europe to Trump's war against Iran has started to 
turn into action.

   Spain has closed its airspace to U.S. planes involved in the war.

   Early last month, France agreed to let the U.S. Air Force use a base in 
southern France after receiving a "full guarantee" from the United States that 
planes not involved in carrying out strikes against Iran would land there.

   The government of Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni, long seen as one of the 
European Union leaders with the best personal ties to Trump, denied permission 
for U.S. bombers to land at the Sigonella air base in Sicily for one mission 
related to the Middle East.

   Franco Pavoncello, a professor of political science at Rome's John Cabot 
University, said that decision might cost Meloni a lot of her political capital 
in Washington.

   But he said, "The Italian government could not be seen by the European 
allies as too submissive to American interests, as it would have very negative 
repercussions both at home and in the EU."

   U.S. relations with Europe had already soured in recent months over Trump's 
call for Greenland -- a semiautonomous territory of stalwart NATO ally Denmark 
-- to become part of the United States, prompting many EU countries to rally 
behind Copenhagen.