US President Donald Trump has told NATO chief Mark Rutte he was “let down” by members of the transatlantic alliance who did not back his war against Iran.
“We were let down. We didn’t need help on this at all. We demolished (Iran) literally in the first week but it would have been nice if they would have said, ‘We’d like to help,'” Trump said during a meeting with Rutte in the Oval Office of the White House.
For his part, Rutte defended the conduct of NATO countries, saying there were 4,000 to 5,000 “US planes taking off from bases in Europe” during the war.
The NATO chief then told journalists after the meeting that Trump is “completely committed to the NATO alliance” and that Washington would “absolutely” protect Europe in the event of an attack.
Commitment to the alliance questioned
Trump’s criticism of NATO comes just two weeks before leaders from the 32 member nations are set to meet for a July 7-8 summit in the Turkish capital of Ankara.
