Opinion

Trump is right about NATO’s weakness; the real question is how does America fix it

Trump didn’t create this problem; Washington built toward it, one deferred hard question at a time

By Lt. Col. Robert Maginnis, (ret.) Fox News

Published April 1, 2026 9:20pm EDT

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When President Trump told The Daily Telegraph NATO is a "paper tiger" and withdrawing the United States is "beyond reconsideration," the foreign policy establishment erupted. It shouldn’t have. Trump was saying aloud what many inside the Pentagon have known for years. The surprise isn’t the criticism. The surprise is how long Washington waited to have this conversation.

I know this alliance from the inside. During the Cold War, I served as a U.S. Army infantry officer in West Germany, drafting contingency plans to blunt a Soviet-armored assault long enough for reinforcements that might never come. 

Later, as a Pentagon strategist, I spent years alongside NATO counterparts watching the alliance expand its reach, add members and quietly lose the clarity of purpose that once made it formidable. Nobody in authority asked the tough questions about what we were building toward. We are now living with the consequences.

PENTAGON OFFICIAL FLAGS RETURN OF 'COLD WAR MENTALITY,' AS TRUMP ADMIN RESHAPES NATO ALLIANCE

The Strait of Hormuz stripped away the pretense. When Washington called on NATO allies to help reopen a choke point through which roughly 20% of the world’s oil normally flows, Germany’s defense minister said flatly, "This is not our war, we did not start it." Spain denied us airspace and bases. 

Most of Europe stood aside while Brent crude surged past $107 a barrel and American families paid four dollars at the pump. These are the countries we are........

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