President Trump has been ramping up the pressure on U.S. allies to help untangle problems caused by the Iran War, calling on them to deploy warships to the Strait of Hormuz in order to keep the key shipping route “open and safe.”

But as the president reiterated his demands during a Sunday press gaggle on Air Force One, he suddenly suggested that maybe the U.S. shouldn’t have gotten involved in the region at all.

President Trump said his administration is talking to seven countries about helping to secure the Strait of Hormuz amid the Iran war, calling on them to help protect ships in the vital waterway that Tehran has mostly blocked to oil tanker traffic https://t.co/m4aIPHSFtG pic.twitter.com/mVk9tb94C6— Reuters (@Reuters) March 16, 2026

President Trump said his administration is talking to seven countries about helping to secure the Strait of Hormuz amid the Iran war, calling on them to help protect ships in the vital waterway that Tehran has mostly blocked to oil tanker traffic https://t.co/m4aIPHSFtG pic.twitter.com/mVk9tb94C6

“I’m demanding that these countries come in and protect their own territory because it is their territory. It’s the place from which they get their energy. And they should come and they should help us protect it. You could make the case that maybe we shouldn’t even be there at all because we don’t need it. We have a lot of oil. We are the No. 1 producer anywhere in the world times two,” Trump said.

He continued, “We do it … it’s almost like we do it for habit, but we also do it for some very good allies that we have in the Middle East.”

On Saturday, Trump suggested that several countries will assist the U.S. in policing the strait, which has seen shipping traffic plummet amid reported threats from Iran toward ships traversing the area. “Hopefully China, France, Japan, South Korea, the UK, and others, that are affected by this artificial constraint, will send Ships to the area so that the Hormuz Strait will no longer be a threat by a Nation that has been totally decapitated,” the president wrote on TruthSocial. “In the meantime, the United States will be bombing the hell out of the shoreline, and continually shooting Iranian Boats and Ships out of the water. One way or the other, we will soon get the Hormuz Strait OPEN, SAFE, and FREE!”

Trump followed up that call with a more direct threat suggesting that a lack of participation from other nations could result in more serious consequences. “If there’s no response or if it’s a negative response I think it will be very bad for the future of NATO,” he said in an interview with Financial Times.

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