This may fly under the radar of the U.S. media, who have their hands full, but NATO has responded to Trump’s verbal swipe at fellow NATO member Montenegro:
NATO officials on Wednesday scrambled to reassert the alliance's collective defense clause — commonly referred to as Article 5 — after US President Donald Trump appeared to suggest NATO's newest member Montenegro could instigate World War III.
A NATO official told Germany's DPA news agency that Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty was "unconditional and iron-clad," reaffirming that "an attack on one is an attack on all."
Other NATO members are committed to the mutual defense treaty. This international rebuke demonstrates their awareness that this “administration” may actually not be on their side.
If they don’t trust the U.S. to fulfill its obligations under Article 5, will they defend the U.S. if we’re attacked again? After all, the only time that Article 5 has ever been invoked was in defense of the U.S. after 9/11.
Trump’s demolition of institutions and norms is being felt worldwide, and could be even more damaging to international relations than tariffs. Trump has already reneged on one international agreement, the Iran Nuclear Agreement/JCPOA, by withdrawing the U.S. from it and pressuring other nations to reimpose Iranian sanctions, even though Iran was found to be compliant with the terms of the agreement according to the IAEA. Although the JCPOA isn’t a treaty, NATO members have good reason to think that Trump might not honor U.S. obligations under a treaty.
We’ve gone from “Why should my son go to Montenegro to defend it from attack?” to “Why should NATO nations defend the U.S. from attack?”