An official Pentagon email reportedly outlined U.S. plans to suspend Spain from NATO and revisit Britain’s claims over the Falkland Islands after European allies refused to assist America in the Iran conflict.
The options were laid out by Elbridge Colby, a top Pentagon policy adviser, who called out certain allies for refusing to give the United States access to bases and airspace, known as “ABO,” Reuters reported Friday.
The outlet cited an anonymous official who described the email in detail.
Colby wrote that ABO is “just the absolute baseline for NATO,” according to the official, which is being discussed among top Pentagon leadership.
President Donald Trump has been highly critical of NATO and the European Union since his first term in office and recently expressed frustration about their lack of involvement in securing the Strait of Hormuz.
He has even threatened to pull America out of the alliance altogether, arguing that the U.S. has been subsidizing European defense and received little in return.
The president accused Europe of being ungrateful, especially considering how the United States rebuilt their countries after World War II under the Marshall Plan, and has continued providing aid and protection ever since.
“When World War II ended in 1945, Europe lay in ruins: its cities were shattered; its economies were devastated; its people faced famine. In the two years after the war, the Soviet Union’s control of Eastern Europe and the vulnerability of Western European countries to Soviet expansionism heightened the sense of crisis,” according to the National Archives.
“Over the next four years, Congress appropriated $13.3 billion for European recovery,” the National Archives article explained. “This aid provided much needed capital and materials that enabled Europeans to rebuild the continent’s economy.”
Back in March, Trump called out Spain and the United Kingdom for not paying their fair share into NATO and for resisting his administration’s requests.
“Some of the European nations have been helpful and some haven’t,” Trump declared. “And I’m very surprised… Spain has been terrible. In fact, I told Scott [Bessent] to cut off all dealings with Spain… Now Spain actually said that we can’t use their bases. And that’s alright. We can use their bases if we want. We can just fly in and use it. Nobody’s going to tell us not to use it.”
He added, “By the way, I’m not happy with the U.K. either.”
.@POTUS: “Some of the European nations have been helpful, and some haven’t—and I’m very surprised. Germany’s been great… Spain has been terrible. In fact, I told Scott to cut off all dealings with Spain.”
“By the way, I’m not happy with the U.K. either.” pic.twitter.com/Q9qtyDVDbx
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) March 3, 2026
About one month later, Trump explained how he withheld intelligence from Germany related to an American strike against Iran because he didn’t trust the nation’s leadership not to leak it.
“How about Germany telling us that, ‘Well, it’s not their war, we had nothing to do with it.’ They wanted me to go and tell them everything I was doing,” he said. “If I would have told them, they would have leaked it, and we wouldn’t have been nearly as successful.”
A Pew Research Center survey from late March revealed that fewer than 40 percent of Republicans and right-leaning independents believe NATO benefits the United States.
“Around four-in-ten Republicans and GOP-leaning independents (38%) say the U.S. benefits a great deal or a fair amount from being part of NATO — down from 49% last year,” the Pew Research Center article read.
“A majority of Republicans (60%) now say the U.S. benefits not too much or not at all from being part of the alliance, up from 50% in 2025,” it continued. “This marks the first time in our surveys that a majority of Republicans have expressed this view.”
News of the poll came after The Economist ran an article on Easter Sunday titled, “European allies are losing hope of keeping America in NATO.”
The outlet described a “funeral mood” among European leadership about the potential dissolution of their alliance with America.
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