British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, left, meets with President Donald Trump during a bilateral meeting at Chequers in Aylesbury, England, on Sept. 18, 2025. Trump this week criticized Starmer and other NATO allies over their response to the Iran war ahead of a meeting with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte and a summit expected to focus on the alliance’s future. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
President Donald Trump lashed out at NATO ahead of his meeting Wednesday with the alliance’s top official, criticizing countries he says failed a key test of alliance loyalty during the Iran war.
“They say, ‘No, we’d rather not help,’” Trump said Monday at the White House, referring to European countries he says did not play a big enough role in the conflict. “Stupid thing to say because we can say that to them if we want, and we might.”
Trump in particular called Italy and Germany “very bad” and mocked outgoing British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, saying, “This was not Winston Churchill we’re dealing with.”
In recent days, Trump has also engaged in a public feud with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who was once seen as one of Trump’s closest allies in Europe.
The remarks come at a sensitive moment for Europe, as NATO prepares for a leaders’ summit next month and the Trump administration weighs potential changes to the U.S. military presence on the Continent.
The administration last week launched a force posture review led by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, a process that could have significant implications for where U.S. troops are based in Europe.
On Wednesday, Trump will sit down with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, who is headed to Washington to lay the groundwork for the early July leaders’ summit, which Trump is expected to attend.
During Trump’s first term, NATO summits served as forums for his grievances with allies on a variety of issues, such as defense spending levels.
In 2018, the gathering was tense, with Trump warning that the United States could walk away from the security bloc that it has helped lead since the early days of the Cold War.
Now, disagreements with key leaders such as German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Meloni are expected to loom over the proceedings in Ankara, Turkey.
Besides disagreements over Iran, Trump on Monday reiterated past concerns about the amount of money the United States spends to support military operations in Europe, which play a big part in deterring Russian aggression against NATO members.
“The numbers that we spend are so crazy on NATO, and (allies) weren’t there for us,” he said.
While the U.S. is involved in numerous missions focused on the defense of Europe, such as operations in Poland, other aspects of the American presence on the Continent are about projecting power globally.
Bases in the United Kingdom and Germany have played a role in Middle East operations, for example.
Meanwhile, Europeans have increased their own defense expenditures significantly — especially since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Rutte and other defense leaders in Europe have signaled they are on board with the Pentagon’s plan to rebalance NATO in a way that puts Europe in the leading role of defending the Continent.
What remains unclear is how fast that transition is expected to happen and whether the Pentagon’s new force posture review will result in an extensive force reduction in Europe, where roughly 80,000 American troops operate.
The uncertainty was on display last month when the Defense Department announced plans to withdraw 5,000 troops from Germany. It later emerged that most of those troops had already been slated for a nine-month deployment to Poland rather than a permanent reduction in Germany.
Trump later said he would send an additional 5,000 troops to Poland, but military officials have yet to explain how they would carry out that directive.
