Yesterday, President Trump sat down with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in the Oval Office and did what he's been doing for months: complained that NATO allies aren't helping with the Iran war, threatened to pull troops from Italy and Spain, and once again floated the idea of walking away from the alliance entirely.
Let's take a step back and think about this with a little common sense.
On February 28, the United States and Israel launched Operation Epic Fury — a massive air campaign against Iran that included B-2 stealth bombers, Tomahawk missiles, B-1 Lancers, B-52 Stratofortresses, and HIMARS strikes. We assassinated Iranian leadership, including Supreme Leader Khamenei. We did this without consulting our NATO allies beforehand. In the first press conferences, the administration bragged about not needing anyone else's help.
"We didn't need help on this at all. We demolished them in literally the first week," Trump told reporters this week.
So we started a war unilaterally, told the world we didn't need help, and now — four months later, after Iran blocked the Strait of Hormuz and triggered a global fuel crisis, after the war dragged on for over three months, after a ceasefire that defers every hard question to a 60-day negotiation window — we're furious that our allies didn't rush to help with a war we explicitly told them we were handling alone.
That's not how alliances work. That's not how anything works.
Secretary of State Rubio has said the administration would "have to reexamine the value of NATO." Trump has threatened to pull troops from European countries and cut off weapons sales to Ukraine through NATO. He's called European allies "cowards" for not joining a war they were never asked to join and never agreed to.
Here's what's getting lost in the chest-thumping: NATO is not a mercenary service you call when your plans go sideways. It's the most successful military alliance in human history. For 77 years, it has been the single most important institution preventing a great-power war in Europe. The only time Article 5 — the collective defense clause — has ever been invoked was on September 12, 2001, the day after 9/11, when every NATO ally stood with us. They didn't hesitate. They didn't negotiate terms. They showed up.
That is what NATO is. An alliance built on trust, mutual commitment, and shared values. You don't burn that down because European countries declined to participate in a war you chose to start without them.
And let's be clear about what happens if we actually weaken NATO. Russia gets bolder — they've been waiting for this for decades. China gains leverage across Eurasia. The global security architecture that has prevented World War III since 1949 starts to crack. American military bases across Europe — bases that project American power and protect American interests — become bargaining chips instead of strategic assets. Our allies start hedging, building their own defense arrangements, and the tight coordination that makes collective defense actually work begins to unravel.
All because we're upset that countries we didn't consult about a war didn't volunteer to fight in it.
NATO Secretary General Rutte, to his credit, handled the meeting with diplomacy. He pointed out that European allies have been providing support — thousands of U.S. aircraft have been taking off from bases across Europe for operations in and around Iran. That's not nothing. That's NATO infrastructure making American military operations possible, even when those operations weren't NATO missions.
But none of this matters if we keep treating our closest allies like subordinates instead of partners. Alliances require consultation. They require respect. They require the basic common sense to understand that if you want people to help you, you need to ask them before you start, not complain after it falls apart.
The Common Sense Party's position is straightforward: America is strongest when our alliances are strong. NATO is the linchpin of global stability, prosperity, and the avoidance of great-power war. We should be strengthening it, not threatening to walk away from it every time we're frustrated.
Diplomacy first. Always.
Read our full foreign policy position: commonsenseforamerica.org/platform/foreign-policy