Trump urges other nations to send warships to the Mideast

Trump faces coalition of the unwilling on Iran

17/03/2026

President Donald Trump spent his first year back in power disparaging US allies. Now he wants them to help America in the Iran war -- and they are none too enthusiastic.

From tariffs to insults and threatening to invade Greenland, Trump has rarely missed an opportunity in recent months to criticize America's partners.

Yet now the 79-year-old Republican has said he expects the same allies to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz to oil traffic and reacted angrily when they rebuffed him.

"It's an extraordinary demand," said Philip Gordon, the former national security advisor to vice president Kamala Harris and now an academic at the Brookings Institution.

"To justify risking people's lives, not only for that operation, but for a president who has done nothing but insult and berate you for the last 15 months, that's probably a bridge too far," Gordon told AFP.



Trump has warned that the NATO alliance could be at risk if it fails to step up to unblock the strategic waterway, saying other countries get most of their oil supply through it and must contribute.

But while he insisted Monday that "we don't need anybody" to clear the straits, he also thundered that US allies from Europe to Asia owe Washington for giving them decades of protection.
Trump has also hit out at China for failing to help.

'Layers of irony'

In foreign capitals there has been deep skepticism over getting involved in a war Trump did not consult them on, yet which has caused major disruption to their economies.

Their reluctance has been compounded by Trump's repeated tongue-lashings since returning to office.

Trump has slapped tariffs on allies, berated NATO members over their defense spending and support for Ukraine, and unveiled a national security strategy that prioritized boosting pro-Trump parties in Europe.

He has disparaged the contributions of nations whose soldiers fought and died alongside US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan -- and claimed that America won World War II by itself.

And just weeks ago came Trump's threats to invade Greenland, which prompted an unprecedented display of unity behind fellow NATO member Denmark that forced Trump to back down.

"There are several layers of irony," remarked Erwan Lagadec of George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs.

Lagadec said the United States had "launched a war without consulting allies, expecting them to mop up the mess, and that's not going fly."

NATO would also unlikely be in a position, or achieve consensus, to launch any major mission in the Strait of Hormuz, Lagadec added.

'Bullying and blackmail'

Before the invasion of Iraq in 2003, then-president George W. Bush spent months building up what he called a "coalition of the willing" of more than 40 countries to back the United States.

But Trump, whose criticism of the Iraq war and other US quagmires was a centerpiece of his "America First" policy, failed to construct any similar alliance for a war he believed would be over soon.

European nations already struggling to deal with Ukraine and their own economies have very practical concerns about getting involved now in Iran, said Liana Fix of the Council on Foreign Relations.

"It is not payback, but just very real constraints and policy trade-offs," Fix told AFP.

But while US allies will still be wary of irking Trump over Hormuz, they may also choose to show that they can no longer be pushed around.

"If they do go along with him, his experience will be that bullying and blackmail work. That's been his experience for the whole first year, and then Greenland put a stop to it," said Gordon, who was also a special assistant to president Barack Obama.

"Now the chickens are coming home to roost."

Trump gives Putin’s Russia a pass on assisting Iran during U.S. war

The president has publicly excused an adversary for helping a different adversary target U.S. troops and assets during the war.

Mar 16, 2026


It’s been about nine days since multiple news organizations, including MS NOW, reported that Russia provided Iran with information that could help it strike American targets. One U.S. official told MS NOW point-blank, “Russia is providing intelligence help to Iran.”


There’s no longer any real doubt about whether the reporting is accurate. Iranian officials have publicly confirmed Russia’s “military cooperation,” U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz acknowledged Russia’s wartime “strategic partnership” with Iran and Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff of California, a former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said in a matter-of-fact sort of way that Russia “is providing intelligence to Iran to better attack and kill American troops.”

The question is less about whether Russia has assisted Iran and more about what Donald Trump intends to do about it.


The initial reaction from the American president and his team was to express total indifference, despite the severity of the allegations. This was soon followed by news out of the White House that the Republican administration agreed effectively to reward Vladimir Putin’s regime by temporarily easing oil sanctions on the country — twice.


For good measure, let’s not overlook the frequency with which top members of Team Trump have publicly vouched for Russia’s trustworthiness and echoed Kremlin talking points in recent days.

But in case this weren’t quite ridiculous enough, Trump has continued to find new ways to make the problem worse. In his latest interview with Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade, for example, the president conceded that he believes Russia “might be” assisting Iran, but said Putin’s regime deserves a pass because the United States has assisted Ukraine.

“You know, it’s like, hey, they do it and we do it, in all fairness,” Trump said. “They do it and we do it.”

Over the weekend, he went further, telling the Financial Times, “You could also make the case that we helped Ukraine to an extent. It’s hard to say, ‘You’re targeting us, but we’ve been helping Ukraine.’”

Just so we’re clear, the incumbent American president, during a war, is both echoing Putin’s talking points for him and excusing an adversary for helping a different adversary target American troops and assets.

If there’s a precedent for anything like this, I’m not aware of it. Trump is no doubt aware of concerns that he has been compromised by Moscow, and he’s not exactly going out of his way to temper those fears.

As for the White House’s decision to offer Russia sanctions relief while it helps Iran target Americans, the move hasn’t just drawn criticisms from Capitol Hill, including from Democrats and some Republicans, but it also has generated pushback from some of the same countries in the region that Trump has “demanded” help from.

The Wall Street Journal reported last week that Putin “can barely conceal a smirk” as the war in Iran continues. There’s little question as to why.