President Trump unleashed his fury on European NATO allies Tuesday at a summit in Turkey, declaring that the Iran war had served as a test of their resolve, and they had failed spectacularly.
He made clear that the United States obviously didn’t need European help, yet they had rejected any form of assistance, even denying the use of their airbases before the U.S. had even asked. Trump said that because of our allies’ failures, he wouldn’t have attended the summit at all if it had been held anywhere but Turkey.
President Trump just unloaded on America’s European NATO allies with the world’s media watching.
— Overton (@overton_news) July 7, 2026
Sitting beside Turkish President Erdoğan, Trump revealed he was “very disappointed” after several NATO allies refused to assist the U.S. during the Iran conflict.
Then he dropped… pic.twitter.com/DEV9sq4oRs
"I was very disappointed with NATO. And frankly, if it weren't held in Turkey, where my friend happens to be a very strong leader, a very strong person, it's possible that I wouldn't have attended," the president said. "I felt I had to attend because of the fact that, you know, I know he's gone all out. It was a big thing to have NATO come to Turkey or anyplace else. It's a big thing."
"But we weren't treated well because we did something in Iran. We don't need anybody's help. I didn't even want their help. But before I asked, they said they wouldn't be there," Trump continued. "And we've invested trillions of dollars in NATO. Why? To protect European countries and others, Canada, et cetera. But to protect people, countries from, generally speaking, it used to be the Soviet Union. Now it's Russia. And I say that's fine, but you would think that they'd be very willing to do something to help us. And they really weren't."
And in a way, I was testing people. I was testing to see whether or not they'd be there, because I've long said that we help them, but I'm not sure that they'd be there for us. And Italy turned us down, and Germany turned us down, and France turned us down. And that's okay. But, you know, why are we spending hundreds of billions of dollars, and they're not there for us? We've always been there for them.
This comes as President Trump has heaped praise on many of our other allies. The Gulf States have been lauded for their crucial assistance in the Iran war, as several countries launched their own strikes on Iranian facilities alongside American and Israeli forces, a stark testament to their belief in Operation Epic Fury and the final dismantling of Iran as a regional power.
More recently, the president has been singing the praises of Turkey, an eyebrow-raising move as he weighs handing the Turkish government F-35s, among the most advanced fighter jets in the American arsenal. Turkey is widely perceived not only as an authoritarian state, but as an ally of anti-Western forces with no real interests aligned with those of the United States.
The two-day NATO summit in Turkey is expected to focus on Europe bolstering its own security, as the Trump administration pushes “NATO 3.0,” a model meant to reflect the alliance’s posture and resolve in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War.