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Cracks In The Ground: NATO Teeters on The Brink of Collapse as Trump Threatens Exit

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and US President Donald Trump (Photo: NATO.int)

By Akerele Christabel

April 5, 2026
1:06 am
Los Angeles, CA

Trump Mocks Starmer and Macron, faults NATO over lack of response to US call to arms in the Strait of Hormuz On the afternoon of April 1, 2026, the White House hosted an Easter lunch with a guest list of handpicked Christian leaders, conservative figures, and senior cabinet members. The event, at first closed to the press, was later inadvertently live-streamed by the White House. Officials quickly pulled the footage from the White House official YouTube channel. However, journalists, reporters, and opposition researchers already downloaded it. In the video, Trump was seen mocking British Prime Minister Keir Starmer over the phone calls between them, imitating a concerned voice and saying, “Oh, I’ll have to ask my team.” The room laughed. He then turned his attention to French President Emmanuel

Trump Mocks Starmer and Macron, faults NATO over lack of response to US call to arms in the Strait of Hormuz

On the afternoon of April 1, 2026, the White House hosted an Easter lunch with a guest list of handpicked Christian leaders, conservative figures, and senior cabinet members. The event, at first closed to the press, was later inadvertently live-streamed by the White House. Officials quickly pulled the footage from the White House official YouTube channel. However, journalists, reporters, and opposition researchers already downloaded it.

In the video, Trump was seen mocking British Prime Minister Keir Starmer over the phone calls between them, imitating a concerned voice and saying, “Oh, I’ll have to ask my team.” The room laughed. He then turned his attention to French President Emmanuel Macron, recounting a call he claimed to have had with the French president.

“I call up France, Macron, whose wife treats him extremely badly. He’s still recovering from the right to the jaw.” Trump said. The remark was a reference to a May 2025 video from a trip to Vietnam that appeared to show Brigitte Macron shoving her husband in the face. Macron had previously dismissed the footage as part of a disinformation campaign, and denied any marital dispute.

Flags of NATO member countries at the entrance to the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (2006).

Trump then mentioned asking Macron to send ships to the Gulf, mimicking a French accent for the refusal: “No, no, no, cannot do that, Donald. We can do that after the war is won…And so I learned about NATO. NATO won’t be there if we ever have a big one.”

The last line mirrors current sentiments from an increasingly disgruntled Washington over the passivity of its allies in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. In the ongoing US-Israeli war against Iran that has seen the Ayatollah and several of the top echelons of Tehran killed and the Strait of Hormuz effectively blockaded, Trump has often blown hot against NATO allies, particularly France, Italy, and Spain, who have resisted requests to provide military support or expanded base access for operations tied to countering Iran in the Gulf. In response to US call to arms, French officials told Reuters that NATO is “not an organization for projecting power in the Middle East.”

Trump has interpreted that resistance as a fundamental betrayal. Speaking to Reuters on April 1, he said he was “absolutely” considering withdrawing the United States from the alliance, and announced that he would address the American public in a nationally televised primetime speech to air his grievances directly. Earlier that same day, he had told the British newspaper The Telegraph that he had never been “swayed” by NATO, which he called a “paper tiger.”

His Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, echoed the sentiment on Fox News, saying that once the Iran conflict concluded, the United States would “have to reexamine” its relationship with the alliance. “If now we have reached a point where the NATO alliance means that we can’t use those bases to defend America’s interests,” Rubio said, “then NATO…” He left the sentence unfinished.

North Atlantic Council, October 14, 2010 (Photo: U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Jerry Morrison)

The alliance’s own envoys are now attempting to manage what has become a genuine crisis of confidence. Matthew Whitaker, the U.S. Ambassador to NATO, said on Thursday that member states must now demonstrate their value to Washington. “Ultimately, the time is now for our NATO allies to explain why they’re beneficial to the United States of America and step up,” he said in a Fox Business interview.

The meeting between Trump and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, confirmed for next week in Washington, has taken on considerably more weight given the circumstances. Rutte has publicly downplayed Trump’s irritation, telling reporters at a March 26 press conference that over 30 countries had committed to discussions on keeping the sea lanes open, and framing that as a direct response to Trump’s demands.

Starmer, for his part, has not retreated. On April 1, the British Prime Minister publicly defended the alliance, calling NATO “the single most effective military alliance the world has ever seen” and adding that the UK remained “fully committed” to it. He also announced that the UK would host a meeting of around 35 countries to discuss reopening the Strait of Hormuz, with Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper set to lead the talks.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and US President Donald Trump (Photo: NATO.int)

Macron, reached by reporters while visiting South Korea, declined to engage with Trump’s personal remarks. “I am not going to respond to them. They do not deserve a response. What we must do is work towards de-escalation, a ceasefire, and the resumption of negotiations. We are talking about matters of grave importance. We are talking about war, about the men and women fighting on the front line, about the men, women and civilians who are being killed.” He said.

The legal pathway for a U.S. withdrawal from NATO remains contested. Congress passed legislation in 2023 requiring congressional approval before a president can withdraw from the alliance, a measure passed specifically in anticipation of this scenario. Trump and his advisers have signaled they may argue that such restrictions are unconstitutional, a position likely to trigger a significant legal fight if tested. Analysts cited by TIME magazine have noted that even the threat of withdrawal, set aside from any actual exit, could trigger one of the most serious crises in NATO’s history by undermining confidence in the alliance’s mutual defense guarantees and weakening deterrence against adversaries.