WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump may be learning the hard way that berating, insulting and threatening America’s traditional allies for years makes persuading them to bail you out of a jam more difficult.
NATO countries have been cool to Trump’s demand they send warships to help the U.S. Navy safeguard the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow opening to the Persian Gulf that oil tankers are currently unwilling to transit because of the threat posed by Iran, which Trump and Israel began attacking two weeks ago.
During a question-and-answer session with reporters Monday at the White House, Trump continued complaining that other nations — none of whom was consulted prior to the start of the air attacks — were not “enthusiastically” responding to Trump’s request.
“They should be in here very happily helping us,” he said. “They should be jumping to help us because we’ve helped them for years.”
Trump has spent many years, from even before his first term, calling other NATO members freeloaders and mischaracterizing the alliance as a form of protection scheme in which other nations were supposed to pay “dues” to the United States.
