Name: US allies reject Trump's call for help in Strait of Hormuz
Uploaded: 2026-03-16T21:31:58.000Z
Duration: 9 min 55 s
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Adverbs of degree

The president is very dismayed with American allies.

Adverbs of manner

He wants help from them when it comes to the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran essentially has at a standstill to oil traffic going through there.

Oil traffic that doesn't really pertain to the US but it does because that's how oil is priced.

It's a global pricing system, obviously, and it's affecting the US but he's frustrated with American allies.

Numerous countries have told me they're on the way.

Some are very enthusiastic about it and some are.

And some are countries that we've helped for many, many years.

We've protected them from horrible outside sources, and they weren't that enthusiastic.

I just want the fake news media and everybody else to remember that that was said because when I've been a big critic of all of the protecting of countries because I know that we'll protect them and if ever needed, if we ever needed help, they won't be there for us.

All right, our reporters are at the White House, Tel Aviv and New York.

They've been listening to the president's remarks.

They're covering all different angles of this.

I want to bring in CNN's Elena Treen first at the White House.

Elena, what stood out to you based on what we heard there?

Yeah, I think really touching on exactly what you just pointed played for the president was really the most notable to me, this idea of his disappointment.

And he used that word specifically Omar and Brianna, to describe the countries and particularly the NATO allies that he says are not coming to the United States aid here in trying to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

I thought, you know, what we heard of him actually yesterday is very much the same kind of threat.

We're hearing today almost this ominous warning, two countries who do not get involved here to send warships to escort these tankers, which is very dangerous.

We've heard that now from many top military, you know, commanders and whatnot.

But this dangerous, you know, helping in this dangerous mission of trying to send these warships to escort these tankers through that very critical Strait of Hormuz.

At one point he said, I think we'd have some very good help.

And I think we're going to be disappointed with some countries again, getting back to that point.

But one thing that very much was clear, and

it was a bit clear from that clip you played, is that he continued to talk about this idea of how he's always thought of the NATO alliance almost as being more beneficial for other members than it is for the United States.

At one point he said, I've said for years that why aren't we being reimbursed for what the United States is doing in the street of Hormuz?

He's kept saying, I've been saying that for years.

He brought up this point that he believes that when these countries need help from the U.S.

the U.S. is willing to help them, not necessarily other way around.

One thing I do want to be clear on though, and

just some context to all of this is what has been so interesting about the president calling on these countries to send these warships to help reopen the strait is that this is the first time really that we've heard the president be so eager to involve other countries in this war.

I'd remind you that when the US first struck Iran, of course, with Israel as well, a lot of these countries said that they were surprised and that they were kind of caught off guard when that first happened.

But really, I think this enormous pressure, pressure we have seen from President Trump and I should note as well, someone who has repeatedly mused openly about this idea of withdrawing support from the Naito alliance, this pressure that continues to build.

Even so, we still haven't seen a lot of these allies who the president said he wouldn't name.

But a lot of these allies come out and say that they would actually send warships.

You know, you look at Germany, the uk, Japan, who actually note who's prime minister will be here later at the White House later this week, all of them so far being very cautious about heating the the president's urges here.

Right now, members of NATO are responding after President Trump warned that the alliance would face a quote, very bad future if it doesn't help secure the Strait of Hormuz.

Now, the EU's foreign policy chief appeared to agree with President Trump that it is in Europe's interest to keep the strait open, but

also added it's quote, out of NATO's area of action.

And a spokesperson for German Chancellor Friedrich Mears struck a more defiant tone, saying it is not NATO's war.

Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer spoke about the situation earlier.

We have to reopen the straight off Hormuz to ensure stability in the market.

So we're working with all of our allies, including our European partners, to bring together a viable collective plan that can restore freedom of navigation in the region as quickly as possible at ease.

Let's talk about the dynamics Here I want to bring in Jim Townsend.

He served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for European and NATO policy.

I want to pick up with a little bit of what we heard from the president here in terms of the United States relationship with NATO on one hand, asking for help not just from NATO countries, but

from those from the likes of China and Japan as well, but

also in the same breath, saying the United States doesn't need NATO.

And I just wonder, from the European perspective, where is the threshold for actual assistance here?

And what do you think it would take to actually get to that point?

Well, it's a great question, and I think there's a lot of confusion about NATO versus NATO allies.

NATO as an institution, if it wanted to go to the Straits, if this was something that NATO agreed, like going to Afghanistan was, NATO could do that.

It would never get the votes within the alliance to make this an alliance operation.

However, NATO nations can certainly come together in a coalition of the willingness and go in there and do what the Prime Minister Starmer was talking about, to go in there and to work with the US Navy and get the straits open.

So as far as Europeans are concerned, they realize that this is going to be in their interest because of the price of energy and other economic ramifications.

But they're still stung by how they have been addressed by Trump and how the alliance has been addressed in terms of NATO.

So there's not a lot of good feelings towards the United States right now, particularly because they were not part of the process in the run up to this war.

And that's one of the major contrasts here, that in the past, we may have seen the United States sort of feel out that support that may be there from allies before taking action.

But in terms of assistance, the president is asking for whatever it takes to quote him, including minesweepers, for example.

What help could NATO countries actually offer here that would help in the United States efforts?

Well, one thing that a lot of the NATO nations who are seafaring nations like Denmark, UK and others, they do minesweeping.

NATO has a very capable minesweeping capability among the nations.

So it doesn't have to be a NATO maritime operation there.

It can be the nations themselves who can bring their minesweeping capability to the Gulf.

So I think what's important here is that the allies, the NATO nations themselves, that this might not be a NATO operation, but

the European nations know that this has got to be done.

And I think they need to hold their nose and get this done.

And these nations can bring not just their minesweeping, but

they've got frigates, they can do escorting, they can do a lot of things, leaving the combat activities to the US if that's the way they want to do it.

We're joined now by CNN military analyst retired Army Lieutenant General Mark Schwartz.

General, thank you so much for being with us here.

And in response to Trump's calls to assist with keeping shipping lanes open, there was a spokesperson for the German chancellor who said this war has nothing to do with NATO.

So, you know, maybe you can sort of dissect the president's request here.

I think there's a lot of folks who look at it and think there are flaws.

But also can NATO really wash their hands of this?

I think NATO collectively is an alliance.

Maybe it's not a NATO Alliance Article 5 scenario.

But certainly there's many European countries that have provided littoral combat ship like vessels, frigates, other mine counter mine capabilities to many of us led coalition maritime efforts.

So I suspect we'll see several countries eventually agree to come in the United Kingdom, as you know, you heard the prime minister speak earlier about hey, let's come together and put together a task force, a coalition to support freedom of navigation.

So, you know, I just, I wish this wasn't playing out in public.

It's not healthy, I don't think with long standing alliances that are kind of tit for tat that's going on.