Trump says he's considering leaving Nato as Starmer says UK will host talks on Strait of Hormuz

Donald Trump is strongly considering pulling the US out of Nato, according to an interview he gave to the Telegraph.

The newspaper says Trump called the alliance a "paper tiger" and claimed the UK does not have a navy.

Asked if he would reconsider the US's membership of the alliance after the conflict in the Middle East, Trump said: “Oh yes, I would say [it’s] beyond reconsideration...

“I was never swayed by Nato. I always knew they were a paper tiger, and Putin knows that too, by the way.”

“You don’t even have a navy. You’re too old and had aircraft carriers that didn’t work,” he added, referring to the state of Britain’s fleet of warships.

During his first term, President Trump criticised Nato members for failing to spend more on defence, claiming the US was spending more than its European allies.

Then in January of this year, Trump questioned the transatlantic alliance's loyalty at a time when he was threatening to take control of Greenland.

Asked at the time by the BBC whether the possible break-up of Nato was a price he was willing to pay to acquire the territory, Trump responded: "Nobody has done more for Nato than I have, in every way."

It came after he had questioned whether Nato would come to the aid of the US, should it be required: "I know we'll come to [Nato's] rescue, but I just really do question whether or not they'll come to ours."

That same month, he was also highly critical of Nato and British troops in Afghanistan, claiming the alliance had sent "some troops" but "stayed a little back, a little off the front lines", sparking outrage from veterans and their families.

Donald Trump's latest warning that he might be thinking of pulling out of Nato clearly stems from a major fit of pique over the reluctance of members to play a more active role in the war with Iran.

Put aside for a moment the fact that joining wars of choice beyond Europe was never the purpose of the alliance, and that the US attacked Iran, not the other way around.

The president’s disenchantment with Nato has been well known for a decade.

Angry over the failure of members to spend 2% of their GDP on defence, Donald Trump came close to pulling out in 2019, according to Nato's former chief Jens Stoltenberg.

Trump’s ambivalence and occasional outright hostility towards Nato have already led to calls for Europe to take a more leading role.

In a report published last week, the MPs and peers that make up the parliamentary Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy, said this should be an increasingly urgent priority.

"The UK and its European allies," they wrote, "must develop a clear plan for a transition towards greater European leadership of Nato."