Trump pressures NATO over European Iran stance
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- NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte arrives at the White House Wednesday for what Axios calls potentially the alliance's most consequential encounter with Trump since his return to office.
- Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told NATO defense ministers the U.S. will conduct a six-month survey of European defense spending and cut American military presence in countries not paying their 'fair share,' declaring 'NATO will be a two-way street.'
- Trump singled out Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Truth Social for refusing U.S. use of Italian landing strips and runways, calling it 'a great logistical inconvenience' despite U.S. contributions of 'hundreds of Billions of Dollars a year' to Italy's defense.
- Secretary of State Marco Rubio echoed the complaint about Spain, France, and Britain, asking 'why are you in NATO?' when allies deny U.S. base access; Britain partially relented.
- Trump escalated personal feuds with allies in a single week, claiming Meloni 'begged' for a photo at the G7 (she called it 'completely fabricated') and breaking news of UK PM Keir Starmer's resignation on Truth Social before Starmer announced it himself.
- The contrast Axios flags: in the same Axios Show interview where Trump mocked allied leaders, he praised China's Xi Jinping ('a very smart man'), India's Narendra Modi ('a great leader'), and said Russia's Putin shouldn't have been kicked out of the G8.
- Trump told The Telegraph in April he was 'strongly considering pulling out of NATO' after the alliance failed to help the U.S. in Iran, calling it 'a paper tiger' — language now backed by concrete policy moves rather than rhetoric alone.
Why it matters: The U.S. is moving from rhetorical threats against NATO to operational ones: a six-month spending survey that will formally identify 'free-riders,' the credible threat of pulling American troops from specific countries, and a sitting president publicly musing about NATO withdrawal. If even one major ally like Italy or Spain loses U.S. basing access for Iran operations, it constrains Washington's ability to project force in future Middle East crises — making European cooperation on Iran a precondition, not a favor.
