President Donald Trump took direct aim at U.S. allies Monday, blasting NATO as a “paper tiger” and accusing multiple partner nations of failing to back American forces during the ongoing conflict with Iran.
“We went to NATO — I didn’t ask very strongly, I just said, ‘If you want to help, great.’ They said, ‘No, no, no — we don’t want to help,'” Trump said. “Putin’s not afraid of NATO. Putin’s afraid of us. Very afraid of us … NATO’s a paper tiger.”
“They’ve gone out of their way to NOT help us … They didn’t want to give us landing strips!” Trump added.
The president’s remarks marked one of his sharpest rebukes yet of the 32-member military alliance, long viewed as a cornerstone of Western defense strategy.
Trump widened the criticism beyond NATO, calling out key Indo-Pacific allies including Japan, South Korea, and Australia for what he described as a lack of meaningful support.
“We’ve got 50,000 soldiers in Japan to protect them from North Korea,” Trump said. “We have 45,000 soldiers in South Korea to protect us from Kim Jong Un.”
He added bluntly: “Japan didn’t help us or Australia didn’t help us. South Korea didn’t help us. And then you get to NATO. NATO didn’t help us. There were some countries that did.”
Watch the clip below:
NOW – Trump disses "paper tiger" NATO, says they went "out of their way not to help" with the Iran war and that South Korea, Australia and Japan also didn't help. pic.twitter.com/kOF4vzaYFT
— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) April 6, 2026
