MIAMI BEACH — The United States may stop promising to defend its NATO allies should they come under attack, President Donald Trump said Friday, escalating his verbal barrage against the alliance as his frustration grows that European leaders have not significantly contributed to his war against Iran.
“NATO just wasn’t there” when he asked for help with the Iran war, Trump told a Miami Beach investment conference sponsored by the Saudi sovereign wealth fund. That, he said, was “a tremendous mistake” by the Europeans.
“We spend hundreds of billions of dollars a year on NATO, hundreds, protecting them, and we would have always been there for them, but now, based on their actions, I guess we don’t have to be,” he continued.
