The president’s latest update on Operation Epic Fury included a warning of a potentially “very bad” future for European allies based on their response in protecting a key oil route.
Throughout the years, President Donald Trump has never been shy about the disproportionate support the United States has supplied to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Sunday, the chief executive warned what may come of that alliance pending “no response or if it’s a negative response” to his calls for NATO to pull its weight in defending ships in the Strait of Hormuz.
Speaking with the Financial Times in an interview on Sunday, the president reminded, “We have a thing called NATO. We’ve been very sweet. We didn’t have to help them with Ukraine. Ukraine is thousands of miles away from us … But we helped them.”
“Now we’ll see if they help us. Because I’ve long said that we’ll be there for them, but they won’t be there for us. And I’m not sure that they’d be there,” added Trump, who told the outlet, “If there’s no response or if it’s a negative response, I think it will be very bad for the future of NATO.”
Offering a similar take aboard Air Force One, the commander-in-chief told reporters, “It’d be nice to have other countries police that with us.”
“We’re always there for NATO,” he remarked, having told the Times, “It’s only appropriate that people who are the beneficiaries of the Strait will help to make sure that nothing bad happens there.”
.@POTUS provides an update on Operation Epic Fury: “They want to negotiate badly, as they should, but I don’t think they’re ready to do what they have to do… We will finish the job.” pic.twitter.com/5DULT3KE7A
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) March 16, 2026
The statement came amid an update on the condition of Iran: “They wanna negotiate. They wanna negotiate badly. I don’t think they’re ready … They wanna negotiate badly, as they should, but I don’t think they’re ready to do what they have to do.”
As the price of oil climbed over $100 per barrel, after spending much of the previous twelve months in the $60 range, the president also told the Times that he may delay a summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping slated for later in March.
“I think China should help too because China gets 90 percent of its oil from the Straits [sic],” Trump told the outlet. “We’d like to know before that. It’s [two weeks is] a long time.”
He also raised the strikes on Kharg Island, the primary crude oil export hub of Iran, of which he detailed on Saturday, “… the United States Central Command executed one of the most powerful bombing raids in the History of The Middle East, and totally obliterated every MILITARY target in Iran’s crown jewel, Kharg Island.”
Last night, U.S. forces executed a large-scale precision strike on Kharg Island, Iran. The strike destroyed naval mine storage facilities, missile storage bunkers, and multiple other military sites. U.S. forces successfully struck more than 90 Iranian military targets on Kharg… pic.twitter.com/2X1glD4Flt
— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) March 14, 2026
Trump said the one area of the island’s operation that had been thus far spared could be struck “on five minutes’ notice.”
Meanwhile, as the Islamist regime in Iran suggested it would allow any country other than the United States and Israel passage through the strait, the commander-in-chief took to Truth Social on Sunday to call out Iran and a complicit corporate media for relying on artificial intelligence to spread propaganda, “Iran has long been known as a Master of Media Manipulation and Public Relations. They are Militarily ineffective and weak, but are really good at ‘feeding’ the very appreciative Fake News Media false information. Now, A.I. has become another Disinformation weapon that Iran uses, quite well, considering they are being annihilated by the day.”
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) March 15, 2026
After remarking on videos that showed “phony ‘Kamikaze Boats'” and the USS Abraham Lincoln on fire while he suggested “Media Outlets that generated it should be brought up on Charges for TREASON for the dissemination of false information,” the president said, “The fact is, Iran is being decimated, and the only battles they ‘win’ are those that they create through AI, and are distributed by Corrupt Media Outlets.”
Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn't researching current events and their impacts, you'll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.
- Top Trump DHS official calls US citizenship test too soft - March 16, 2026
- Trump warns ‘very bad’ future for NATO if it won’t help with Hormuz - March 16, 2026
- MSNOW host accuses Trump of using ‘bit of racism’ to describe Iranians - March 16, 2026
Comment
We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.