Washington’s allies are backing their own interests instead of heeding President Donald Trump’s calls to join the Iran war, perhaps wary of Washington’s unpredictability.
Japan’s leader faces an awkward meeting with Trump tomorrow, having refused to offer military support in Iran; Spain’s prime minister called the war “illegal.” Ireland’s leader gave rare pushback to Trump, defending his British counterpart from the president’s criticisms, while France reiterated its refusal to help unblock the Strait of Hormuz.
They all calculate that Trump rarely remembers favors, historian Anne Applebaum wrote in The Atlantic: “If allied leaders thought that their sacrifice might count for something,” they might help, but they have spent 14 months appeasing him, and “he doesn’t seem to remember or care.”