Sir Keir Starmer and other European leaders cannot risk alienating Donald Trump because the President’s threat to leave Nato is “very real”, a senior US Navy veteran has warned.
Mark Montgomery, a retired vice admiral, believes the continent’s armed forces – including the Royal Navy – are too weak to deter Russian attacks without American support.
He criticised the US President’s treatment of Britain and other allies, but said Europe must realise the huge risks if Trump becomes so angry that he rips up vital security guarantees.
Montgomery urged countries like Spain to “stop acting like assholes” towards the President after it refused access to military bases for operations against Iran.
He also called on the UK to boost its spending on warships, saying its navy was in “very poor shape”.
Trump said this week that he is seriously considering a US withdrawal from the alliance, calling Nato a “paper tiger”.
Nato countries commit to defend any member hit by an enemy, on the basis that an “attack on one is an attack on all”. The US began its war on Iran with unprovoked attacks.
But Trump claimed that allies should still have joined the air assaults “automatically”, saying: “We would always have been there for them. They weren’t there for us.”
His Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, agreed that the White House would have to “re-examine the value of Nato”.
The i Paper earlier reported fears that Russia could exploit Trump’s threat, with diplomats from European Nato members saying relations with the US need to be urgently repaired.
Mark Montgomery, right, retired as a vice admiral in 2017 (Photo: Robin W Peak/US Navy)Trump’s unhelpful rudeness towards Europe
Montgomery, a former commander of the aircraft carrier USS George Washington and its taskforce who retired in 2017, underlined his own support for Nato.
He admitted that Trump’s rudeness towards close allies has been “absolutely unhelpful” for Western co-operation.
The President’s “embarrassing” threat to seize Greenland from Denmark in January had a “lasting impact” on transatlantic relations, he fears.
“You can’t mistreat people for 14 months and then wonder why they don’t run to your assistance when you ask for it.”
But Montgomery believes Trump is “right to be disappointed in some of our European partners” over low defence spending since the end of the Cold War. “You did take a 30-year hiatus where you freeloaded off the US.”
He said Western European governments must “be more accommodating to Trump, as distasteful as that is for all of us”, to ensure the US President does not abandon security commitments – especially for nations bordering Vladimir Putin’s regime.
“If I were the Europeans, I would be very careful. I get that it’s fun to poke Trump, like the Spanish [have done]. For them, it’s a game, because they’re so far away from Russia.
“It’s not a game for Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania. If there’s truly a European project here, where Spain gives a shit about the Eastern European countries, they’d stop acting like assholes. They’d spend money on defence, like they’re supposed to.”
Spain’s military budget was just 1.24 per cent of the country’s GDP in 2024, the lowest level of all Nato members.
The country’s left-wing government increased spending to 2 per cent last year – hitting the minimum level required by the alliance, together with Portugal, Albania, Belgium and Canada – while the UK’s rose to 2.3 per cent.
But Montgomery, who is now a senior fellow at the US think-tank Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said these numbers remain too low for the continent to defend itself. “Let’s not fool ourselves: it’s still a shitty defence contribution.”
Building a European defence network capable of acting without the US would be a “trillion-dollar investment”, he claimed. Nato members agreed in December to raise defence spending to 5 per cent of GDP by 2035.
Montgomery says the UK’s aircraft carriers are impressive but is frustrated at the readiness of the Royal Navy (Photo: Chris Gorman/Getty)European leaders placing allies ‘at risk’
Relations between Washington and Europe have soured further after several countries refused access to airbases for American bombers involved in the Iran war.
Trump said he was “not happy with the UK” after Starmer initially prevented any US attacks on Iran being launched form British soil. However, the Prime Minister has since allowed “defensive” missions – such as strikes on missile launchers that could hit the RAF Akrotiri airbase in Cyprus – to be flown from the UK.
Italy and France have also refused US access to bases, while Spain angered Trump even more by closing its entire airspace to US bombers.
Trump threatened to cut off all trade with the country in response – leading its prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, to accuse the US President of playing “Russian roulette with the destiny of millions”.
Montgomery said these leaders were placing eastern allies “at risk for their own national hubris” by making these decisions.
To officially remove the US from Nato, the President would need the decision to be approved by two-thirds of the Senate or an Act of Congress.
But even if he cannot legally withdraw from the treaty, Trump could still disengage his armed forces from the alliance and refuse to help other members, in his role as commander-in-chief.
Royal Navy’s condition ‘not acceptable’
Montgomery said Trump was wrong to dismiss the UK’s two aircraft carriers as “toys”. “I’ve been on the Prince of Wales. It is a good, high-quality asset,” he said.
He is frustrated that Britain does not have one of the two huge vessels ready to sail at any time to help Nato, saying this failure was down to low spending.
The i Paper revealed last week that the UK does not have any naval vessels available to serve as the flagship for a regular Nato mission in the North Atlantic and Baltic Sea this month.
The Defence Secretary, John Healey, admitted that he was “not happy with the situation” while Lord West, a former head of the Royal Navy, said the news showed that “all of the cuts to defence have come home to roost”.
Montgomery was shocked that Healey was unable to say in a recent radio interview how many frigates and destroyers are in the Royal Navy – stating that it is 17 when the correct figure is 13.
“When you don’t have that many military forces, you should know how many military forces you have,” he said.
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