Opinion: Hormuz Snub Shows US-NATO Breakup Overdue
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- Brandon Smith wrote in Alt-Market that US separation from NATO is "long overdue," arguing Trump's Iran strikes and policy disruptions have inadvertently advanced a goal long pursued by Ron Paul–aligned libertarians.
- European nations and Australia refused to support US efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz despite being more exposed to energy export slowdowns, Smith noted, calling the response "geopolitical orbiting."
- Trump's demand that NATO countries raise defense spending to 5% of GDP triggered a breakdown in transatlantic relations, Smith argued, after decades of US subsidization enabled European welfare states.
- Cuts to USAID and foreign subsidy programs exposed foreign nations' deep dependency on US monetary injections, creating a "shockwave" in global order once the cash stopped flowing, according to Smith.
- Europe's Muslim population has reached 62 million — doubled in 20 years — alongside 47 million third-world migrants, which Smith frames as a "multicultural alliance" driving European elites' hostility to US policy.
- Several EU countries denied the US use of airspace, prompting Smith to suggest Washington will shut down military bases and remove nuclear weapons from Europe as the divorce accelerates.
Why it matters: The opinion piece frames the Hormuz standoff not as a one-off dispute but as the visible symptom of a deeper ideological fracture between the US and Europe, anchored in Trump's 5% defense-spending demand and the shutdown of USAID. Smith's prescription — redirecting billions spent on European defense to US debt reduction — is a libertarian-populist argument for NATO dissolution that is gaining visibility as European nationalist parties (AfD, National Rally, "Restore") build parallel movements.
