5 globe-spanning takeaways from Trump's FT interview
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President Trump speaks at the White House last week. Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images
President Trump said Sunday he may delay his visit to China this month and urged the country to help the U.S. reopen the Strait of Hormuz that Iran's effectively shut during the war.
The big picture: Trump made the comments during an interview with the Financial Times that included him issuing warnings to Iran and NATO, as the effectively shuttered strait that's a key commercial shipping channel and high oil and prices weigh heavily on his administration.
Here are the key takeaways from Trump's FT interview:
Trump may delay his China summit
"We may delay" the planned Beijing summit with Chinese leader Xi Jingping, Trump said, without clarifying the length of delay.
Context: Trump said in November he had accepted Xi's invitation to visit Beijing following a trade truce and that he had invited China's leader for a state visit later this year.
- His Beijing visit is scheduled for March 31-April 2.
Trump calls on Beijing to help unblock strait
Trump told the FT that unlike the U.S., the strait that Tehran has a stranglehold over is vital to Europe and China due to their dependence on oil from the Persian Gulf.
- "It's only appropriate that people who are the beneficiaries of the Strait will help to make sure that nothing bad happens there," Trump said.
Trump issues warning to NATO
Trump called on NATO allies to do "whatever it takes" to help the U.S. "We have a thing called NATO," Trump said. "We didn't have to help them with Ukraine. ... But we helped them. Now we'll see if they help us," he said.
- "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," Trump added.
- "If there's no response or if it's a negative response I think it will be very bad for the future of NATO."
The big picture: Trump has for years criticized NATO countries for reasons including not paying their "fair share."
Trump rails against U.K. prime minister
Trump noted during the interview that U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer for initially refused to allow the U.S. to use British bases for strikes on Iran.
- "The U.K. might be considered the number one ally, the longest serving et cetera and when I asked for them to come, they didn't want to come," he said if the NATO member country.
- "And as soon as we basically wiped out the danger capacity from Iran, they said, 'oh well we'll send two ships', and I said, 'we need these ships before we win, not after we win'. I've long said that NATO is a one-way street."
U.S. may "hit" Kharg island again
"You saw we hit Kharg island, everything but the pipes yesterday," Trump said of last week's massive U.S. military strike on the island that's the center of Iran's oil exports.
- "We can hit that in five minutes. And there's not a thing they can do about it."
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