'Maybe he shouldn't have threatened to invade an ally': Michael McFaul on Trump's NATO criticism

Former U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul sharply criticized President Donald Trump on social media Tuesday, asserting that NATO allies are well within their rights not to support the administration's military campaign in Iran. McFaul's criticism follows the President's repeated attack on other North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) members for refusing to engage in the Iran war directly. Even on Monday, the President lashed out at his NATO allies, saying that the Iran war has changed his perspective on the military alliance. 

"If Trump wanted NATO to go to war with him in Iran, maybe he shouldn't have threatened to invade and annex one ally, joked about making another 51st state, or irrationally slapped tariffs on them. He also should have asked for NATO's support before launching his war, not after," McFaul wrote in a post on X. President Trump has, on several occasions, expressed interest in acquiring Greenland and, in a social media post, had labelled Canada as a "51st state" of the U.S. Both Denmark and Canada are founding members of NATO.

Even on Monday, while briefing reporters about the Iran conflict, Trump reiterated his desire to annex Greenland. Apart from calling NATO "a paper tiger" and listing out the names of his allies that he said refused to offer help, Trump also indicated that Greenland might remain a point of friction with NATO. "It all began with, you want to know the truth? Greenland. We want Greenland. They don't want to give it to us, so I said, 'Bye bye,'" the President said as he closed out the media interaction. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has echoed the President's sentiments, dismissing NATO as a weak alliance. "You don't have much of an alliance if you have countries that are not willing to stand with you when you need them," Hegseth said in an earlier media interaction.

The friction with NATO allies has been further strained by steep tariffs the Trump administration placed on several allies earlier in the term. While the White House reportedly hoped to trigger Article 5, the alliance's collective defense clause, to garner military support against Iran, legal and diplomatic experts note that the clause applies only to member states under attack. In the current conflict, the international community largely views the U.S. and Israel as having started the conflict. Prominent allies, including France and Spain, have closed their military bases and restricted their airspace to American forces.