President Trump is reportedly considering pulling American troops out of nations that have not been supportive of the U.S. effort in Iran and placing them in nations that have. I think such a decision is well-advised and long overdue.
European nations are largely weak and gutless. What more dire warning does a nation need than that the murderous Iranian regime is on the cusp of a nuclear bomb—which it would not hesitate to use to annihilate its Middle Eastern neighbors, including Israel—and then the rest of the world?!
So, Trump may move U.S. troops from NATO countries unhelpful to the U.S. and relocate them in nations that are viewed as supportive of our critical effort. It could also involve closing U.S. bases in countries like Spain or Germany who are highly unreliable, if not hostile to, U.S. interests.
The Wall Street Journal has reported that this “proposal would involve moving U.S. troops out of North Atlantic Treaty Organization member countries deemed unhelpful to the Iran war effort and stationing them in countries that were more supportive.” (WSJ, April 2026).
“It’s quite sad that NATO turned their backs on the American people over the last six weeks when it’s the American people who have been funding their defense,” said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt. Trump wrote on Truth Social that “NATO wasn’t there when we needed them, and they won’t be there if we need them again.”
WSJ further reports that “the U.S. has around 84,000 troops stationed across Europe … It couldn’t be determined which countries would lose troops, yet a number of alliance members have run afoul of Trump since he returned to office and more recently attracted his ire by objecting to the war in Iran.”
WSJ continued “Administration officials are frustrated with Spain, and also Germany, after top German officials criticized the war. Italy also briefly blocked the U.S. use of an air base in Sicily, and the French government agreed to only allow the U.S. to use a base in southern France after it guaranteed planes not involved in Iran strikes would land there.” (WSJ, April 8, 2026).
The Trump Administration view is summarized by the Christian Science Monitor which states “Mr. Trump tends to see NATO as less a military organization than as shorthand for a collection of European allies who “freeload” on American military protection. He has treated the alliance as largely expendable …” Millions of Americans, no doubt, share this view.
Nile Gardiner, of The Heritage Foundation, stated “the lack of support for the United States has been nothing less than treacherous. I think the president has the right to be outraged by the lack of support from key European allies.” Gardner continued “there is a very deep-seated cultural appeasement toward the Iranian regime that goes back many decades, and a flat-out refusal to accept the reality of the immense dangers of a nuclear-armed Iran.”
So, Trump has raised a legitimate question about the value of NATO itself. Whatever purpose it may have served after World War II, it has become cowardly, unreliable and tends toward appeasement.
NATO members screech in fear about the threat they face from Putin and Moscow. However, as the CATO Institute points out, “this view is dated and fails to recognize how profoundly Europe has changed. The United Kingdom and France have nuclear weapons, which they would use to defend themselves if needed. … And a Russia that cannot defeat Ukraine cannot expand into Europe.”
Further, the “sacred” Article 5, which states that “an armed attack against any NATO member is considered an attack against all of them,” really means only that the U.S. will come save NATO countries when they are threatened. It certainly does not mean that those same NATO members will assist the U.S. They won’t. So, Trump reasonably asks, of what real use is NATO? What does the American citizen and taxpayer get out of the trillions we have spent to defend nations who don’t reciprocate?
I am thankful to God that world history has included leaders like President Reagan and Saint Pope John Paul the Great who created The Holy Alliance which defeated the Soviet Union and ended the Cold War, as well as Churchill, Thatcher, and now, the courageous Trump. Without them, the darkness and evil that hovers eternally over the lives of most people would have extinguished the light of freedom and hope. But it has not.
Shreveport attorney, Royal Alexander, worked in D.C. in the U.S. House of Representatives for nearly 8 years for two different Members of Congress from Louisiana.