On Sunday, U.S. President Donald Trump called on Europe to help keep the Strait of Hormuz open. However, Europe’s leading nation is rejecting the request.

“It’s only appropriate that people who are the beneficiaries of the strait will help to make sure that nothing bad happens there,” Trump told the Financial Times on Sunday. “If there’s no response or if it’s a negative response, I think it will be very bad for the future of nato.”

Not only is Europe one of the main beneficiaries of trade going through the strait, it is also the most concerned about the future of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

In January, Trump threatened to annex Greenland by force to ensure U.S. national security. Outraged, Germany claimed this would effectively end nato and expressed its resistance by sending a small group of troops to prepare a nato mission there. This was meant to show that nato can keep this strategic area secure. Now, Trump is requesting nato’s help, but Germany is refusing to lend a hand.

• Former German Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg criticized Trump’s request as “a little short of blackmail,” but he also noted that German interests are at play.
• “This war has nothing to do with nato. It’s not nato’s war,” Stefan Kornelius, a spokesperson for German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, told reporters in Berlin on Monday. “nato is a defensive alliance, an alliance for the defense of its territory,” he added. “As long as this war continues, there will be no involvement, not even in an option to keep the Strait of Hormuz open by military means.” This means Germany may send warships to the region, but only after the U.S. ends its military operation.
• Kaja Kallas, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, also rejected the idea of expanding an EU naval mission in the Middle East to the Strait of Hormuz, for the time being.
• “What does … Donald Trump expect a handful or two handfuls of European frigates to do in the Strait of Hormuz that the powerful U.S. Navy cannot do?” German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius ⁠said in Berlin. “This is not our war; we have not started it.”

During his March 3 press conference with President Trump, Merz took a different tone. At the time, he said, “We are supporting the United States and Israel to get rid of this terrible terrorist regime.”

• However, even then he said: “This is, of course, damaging our economies. This is true for the oil prices, and this is true for the gas prices as well. So that’s the reason why we all hope that this war will come to an end as soon as possible.”

The Iran war is exposing the dire state of the nato alliance; it may not survive even on paper much longer. Europe’s break with America is the subject of our latest Trumpet issue.

“This growing enmity between the U.S. and the EU is important to watch,” we wrote. “The Bible contains dozens of prophecies warning about the destruction of the U.S. and Britain by a German-led superstate. Mr. Armstrong used these prophecies to forecast Britain’s exit from the EU, and we can use them to forecast America’s exit from nato.”

Even war with an evil terrorist regime is failing to bring the alliance together.