By the time Trump was first elected in November 2016, the proposition that America’s NATO allies had to spend more on defense was axiomatic within the Washington establishment. Successive administrations insisted that allies get serious about “burden sharing.”
lørdag 4. april 2026
Will the Strait of Hormuz Sink NATO?
On Wednesday, after America’s NATO allies refused his call to help unblock the Strait of Hormuz, a furious Donald Trump said he might withdraw the United States from the alliance. No other American president has even hinted at taking such a step: they all considered NATO vital to American national security as well as to global, particularly European, stability. Even if Trump does not act on his threat—his address to the nation left that question unresolved—Trump has broken new ground simply by making it.Before turning to the alliance’s current crisis, it’s worth reviewing how things got to this point.
By the time Trump was first elected in November 2016, the proposition that America’s NATO allies had to spend more on defense was axiomatic within the Washington establishment. Successive administrations insisted that allies get serious about “burden sharing.”
By the time Trump was first elected in November 2016, the proposition that America’s NATO allies had to spend more on defense was axiomatic within the Washington establishment. Successive administrations insisted that allies get serious about “burden sharing.”