President Donald Trump sounded off on America’s NATO “allies” when speaking to reporters after stepping off Air Force One on Sunday, April 12, sharply criticizing their self-evident military weakness and ridiculous lack of support for America during the Operation Epic Freedom strikes in Iran, and resultant naval matters regarding the Straight of Hormuz.
For reference, those complaints have been common ones out of the Trump Administration, which has remained extremely frustrated with how the Europeans have behaved and with the fact that they have not only been generally unhelpful, but have allowed their military forces to grow so weak that they are essentially incapable of participating in military struggles abroad. Secretary Rubio, for instance, noted that their weakness is forcing America to rethink its general approach to NATO.
President Trump, in any case, noted that the Iranian forces have been utterly decimated by American and allied military activity in the Straight, pointing in particular to the near-total obliteration of their Navy. He said, “Their military is destroyed. Their whole Navy is underwater. You know that 158 ships are gone. Their navy is gone. Most of their mine droppers are gone.”
Continuing, he commented on the blockade he has said his administration is instituting to shut off the Strait of Hormuz, arguing that it will be “very effective” at totally shutting Iran off from selling oil, which will place immense pressure on the Iranian regime. he said, “We have a blockade going into effect, that’ll be 10:00 tomorrow. Other nations are working so that, Iran will not be able to sell oil. And, that will be a very effective.”
His ire was largely reserved for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and many of the nations in it, noting that though America funds essentially the entire alliance by pouring trillions of dollars into its military, our supposed allies weren’t there when they would have been helpful and are only now participating, when they aren’t really needed or useful.
The president said, making that point to the gathered reporters, “They weren’t there for us, we pay trillions of dollars for NATO and they weren’t there for us.” Continuing, he pointed to how now that the main military fighting has been completed, they are offering to help, which is less useful. He said, “Now they want to come up, but there’s no real threat anymore.”
Continuing after noting as much, the president questioned why America is spending so much money on safeguarding Europe from the supposed threats and predations of Russia when those countries who we are aiding with our military might are so unhelpful and hostile toward us, vowing that the whole system would be under “very serious” reconsideration.
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He said, making that point about Europe and the Russian bogeyman, “When you think of it, we’re guarding against Russia,” he added. “And I’ve long thought it was a little ridiculous, but we spent trillions of dollars doing it. And I think that’s going to be under very serious examination.”
Watch him here:
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video