Trump says he was “very disappointed” by NATO allies’ response to Iran war

President Trump said Tuesday at a NATO leaders’ summit that he was “very disappointed” by the response of America’s closest allies to the war the U.S. and Israel launched jointly against Iran.

“I was very disappointed with NATO,” Mr. Trump told journalists as he met Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan after arriving in Ankara for the NATO summit.

“We didn’t need any help at all, 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 helped them, but I’m not sure that they’d be there for us.”

Mr. Trump has long chastised other NATO members for not joining the war, which the U.S. and Israel launched unilaterally, without any involvement from the transatlantic defensive alliance.

The war has severely impacted European economies, which rely much more heavily than the U.S. on imported gas and oil from the Persian Gulf, amid severe constraints on shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.

Several European nations completely barred the U.S. military from using their bases or airspace for operations against Iran, while the U.K., for instance, declined to participate in offensive operations but made bases available for what it called a “limited defensive purpose,” to help protect national interests and allies in the Gulf region.