The German Minister of Defense, Boris Pistoriusrejected this Monday the president’s request Donald Trump to form a coalition to liberate the Strait of Hormuz, closed to oil trade by the Iranian regime for ten days now.
“It is not our war,” the conservative stated forcefully, “we did not start it.” Pistorius’ words perfectly reflect the current sentiment among the United States’ allies, especially in Europe.
For more than a year, the Trump Administration has ignored and attacked the European Union with all its diplomatic weapons.
Since the stormy intervention of the vice president J.D. Vance at the 2025 Munich Security Conference, where he criticized European leaders for their lack of military commitment and their little respect for freedom of expression, encouraging voters to “free themselves” by voting for far-right options such as the Alternative for Germany (AfD), to Trump’s recent contempt for premier British, Keir Starmer.
They have all been offenses that Europe has assumed, waiting for the moment to be able to claim them.
The phrase “we don’t need anyone to join the wars we’ve already won” struck Downing Street like a stab.
It is true that Starmer was initially reluctant to give up the Diego García base in Mauritius, but later changed his mind only to receive Trump’s outburst.
The Ukrainian president, Volodímir Zelenskioffered its Shahed drone interceptors, the same ones used by Russia, and the response from the White House was “we don’t need help from anyone, least of all from Zelensky.”
No partners for the Hormuz Coalition
And yet, Trump spent the weekend asking precisely everyone for help.
“We have to finish the job,” he says, and he prefers that this part, which probably involves the deployment of soldiers and the presence of ships with an obvious risk of suffering casualties, be done by others.
Specifically, on Saturday he mentioned France, the United Kingdom, China, India, South Korea and Japan. The United Kingdom, we already said, comes from publicly humiliating it, while the relationship with Emmanuel Macron It is freezing, and the French president has already said that yes, he will send a ship to the area… but only to protect neighboring countries.
The response from China and India has not even arrived. Both are allies of Russia and by extension of Iran, especially in the case of Beijing.
South Korea and Japan could be interested because trade in the Strait of Hormuz interests them, but both countries are too focused on tensions with China and North Korea to consider sending warships thousands of kilometers away to help an ally that has also called them beggars on numerous occasions.
In short, it does not seem that there will be a “Hormuz Coalition”, as the White House intends, and not even the suggestion of Kaja Kallahigh representative of the European Union, to extend a NATO mission in the Red Sea towards the Persian Gulf has found the support of member countries.
It is logical that Kallas does not want to completely sever ties with the United States: he knows that his country, Estonia, is next on the Russian imperialist list… and that Putin is getting richer by increasing the price of oil above one hundred dollars a barrel.
Trump goes into fury
What has been Trump’s reaction to this snub? The expected anger along with the predictable confusion. On the one hand, he assured that “many countries” have assured him that they are “sending ships to the area”, although there is no evidence of this.
On the other hand, he has called the owners of the oil tankers who do not dare to pass through the strait “cowards” and, of course, he has criticized his partners repeatedly.
“We don’t need them,” Trump said Monday, “but we want to see how they react.”
The US president linked this reaction to the future of NATO, something he had already done over the weekend.
“The consequences for the Alliance can be very negative,” he stated, in addition to emphasizing that “NATO is us (the United States), Russia is afraid of us, not the Europeans.”
It is not very clear that Putin has a special fear of Trump considering that the American has not even dared to criticize him for supporting Iran in the war.
Trump’s willingness to abandon NATO and leave Europe to its fate comes from a long time ago.
Already in his first term, he forced member countries to increase their defense spending to 2% of GDP and considered charging them money for maintenance costs for the troops deployed on the continent.
At one point, he even gave the order to John Boltonhis then National Security Advisor, to prepare everything for the departure of the United States from the Alliance. At the last minute, he changed his mind.
Israel and the Arab countries, their new allies
In this second term, that 2% has become 5% and the terms have been shortened.
Despite this, as we say, it has ignored the common position regarding Vladimir Putin for his invasion of Ukraine and has dedicated these fourteen months to harassing Zelensky and sending his envoy, Steve Witkoffto the Kremlin on up to a dozen occasions.
To top it all off, it has lifted a good part of the sanctions against Russian oil, which is the regime’s way of financing the war.
It seems that Trump is currently prioritizing relations with the other great powers – China, India and Russia, in particular – and with those that can be a political (Israel) or commercial asset (the Arab countries).
The rest is completely left over.
He did not consult anyone when entering Venezuela, he was on the verge of provoking the biggest crisis in the West since the Second World War with the forcible seizure of Greenland and, of course, he only agreed with Benjamin Netanyahu and probably with Mohamed bin Salmanthe crown prince of Saudi Arabia, the attack on Iran.
The total break with Europe seems a matter of time and is something that has been sought for years.
Isolationists will welcome it, although it is difficult to reconcile this policy of distancing itself from the rest of the West with an interventionism beyond American borders that clashes with everything that MAGA has defended during the last twelve years.