--- description: In a Truth Social post, President Trump suggested putting the world’s strongest military alliance “to the test” by invoking its mutual defense clause. title: Trump Suggests Invoking Article 5 to Get NATO to Help With U.S. Border image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt27cc999944fc4175/6998cd12c8dcb40dbfb50ce6/donald-trump-nato.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [U.S.](/section/us/) ## U.S. Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Donald Trump](/tag/donald-trump/) ## Donald Trump Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Trump Suggests Invoking Article 5 to Get NATO to Help With U.S. Border ## Video: Trump speaks as tensions over Greenland dominate Davos [Watch (HLS stream): Trump speaks as tensions over Greenland dominate Davos](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/oL9X8h53.m3u8) (2:31)  _Published 2026-01-21. President Donald Trump delivered a defiant and combative address at the World Economic Forum on Wednesday, using the annual gathering of world leaders and business executives to tout America’s role in the world and pressing his case for the U.S. to acquire Greenland._  by [Chad de Guzman](/author/chad-de-guzman/)  ## Chad de Guzman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Reporter Jan 23, 2026 7:30 AM CUT  President Trump speaks to reporters on board Air Force One on Jan. 22, 2026. President Trump speaks to reporters on board Air Force One on Jan. 22, 2026.Chip Somodevilla—Getty Images  by [Chad de Guzman](/author/chad-de-guzman/)  ## Chad de Guzman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Reporter Jan 23, 2026 7:30 AM CUT Donald Trump suggested putting the world’s strongest military alliance “to the test” in his latest social media posting that could have grave consequences. The U.S. President has long criticized the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which also includes 30 European allies and Canada, over his belief that other members don’t pay their fair share. “Maybe we should have put NATO to the test: Invoked Article 5, and forced NATO to come here and protect our Southern Border from further Invasions of Illegal Immigrants, thus freeing up large numbers of Border Patrol Agents for other tasks,” Trump [posted](https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/115941811687438015 "undefined") on Truth Social Thursday night. Article 5 refers to NATO’s [mutual defense clause](https://www.nato.int/en/about-us/official-texts-and-resources/official-texts/1949/04/04/the-north-atlantic-treaty?selectedLocale= "undefined"), which states that an “armed attack” on one member is considered an attack on all 32 member-states. NATO [says](https://www.nato.int/en/what-we-do/introduction-to-nato/collective-defence-and-article-5 "undefined") it assesses on a case-by-case basis what triggers Article 5—such as the “invasion by one state of the territory of another state”—but clarifies that “events that lack an _international_ element, such as purely domestic acts of terrorism, do not trigger” the mutual defense clause, even though member states may choose to assist. In the alliance’s nearly-80-year history, the mutual defense clause has only been invoked once: [on the day after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks](https://www.nato.int/en/news-and-events/events/media-advisories/2001/09/12/statement-by-the-north-atlantic-council "undefined"), and the U.S.’s NATO allies then backed the American response in Afghanistan, where more than 1,000 non-American NATO soldiers were ultimately killed. Trump’s latest Truth Social post comes amid his ongoing threat to pull the [U.S. out of the alliance](https://time.com/7346819/can-trump-pull-united-states-out-of-nato-legal-experts/?utm%5Fsource=chatgpt.com "undefined"). “We’ve never needed them—we have never really asked anything of them,” the President [told Fox Business](https://youtu.be/pLbo02VA0iE?t=315 "undefined") on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Switzerland on Thursday. “You know, they’ll say they sent some troops to Afghanistan or this or that, and they did: they stayed a little back, little off the front lines.” The day before, Trump, in his [meandering speech in Davos](https://time.com/7355488/trump-davos-speech-takeaways-analysis/ "undefined"), blasted NATO’s seeming unreliability: “I know them all very well. I’m not sure that they’d be there. I know we’d be there for them. I don’t know that they’d be there for us.” Trump particularly [criticized](https://time.com/7354005/trump-davos-speech-greenland/ "undefined") NATO ally Denmark, as he [campaigns to bring Greenland](https://time.com/7344877/trump-greenland-annexation-threats-purchase-national-security-economic/ "undefined"), a semi-autonomous territory [of the Kingdom of Denmark](https://time.com/7347183/denmark-greenland-trump-europe/ "undefined"), under U.S. control. He called the Nordic country “ungrateful” after falsely claiming that the U.S. “[gave](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/1/23/did-the-us-give-greenland-back-to-denmark-trump-omits-history-at-davos "undefined")” Greenland back to Denmark after American forces defended it during World War II. But Mark Rutte, NATO’s secretary general, pushed back [Wednesday](https://youtu.be/7Ut0aTWufcA?t=144 "undefined") to assert that NATO did help the U.S. in Afghanistan. “For every two Americans who paid the ultimate price,” Rutte said, “there was one soldier from another NATO country who did not come back to his family—from the Netherlands, from Denmark, particularly from other countries.” Denmark actually suffered the highest per capita deaths among the military coalition members in the Afghanistan conflict: military casualty tracker [iCasualties.org](http://icasualties.org "undefined") lists 43 Danish soldiers killed. “You are not absolutely sure that the Europeans would come to the rescue of the U.S. if you will be attacked,” Rutte told Trump. “Let me tell you, they will.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/7357315/trump-nato-article-5-test-truth-social-post-us-border/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/7357315/trump-nato-article-5-test-truth-social-post-us-border/"},"headline":"Trump Suggests Invoking Article 5 to Get NATO to Help With U.S. Border","datePublished":"2026-01-23T07:30:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-11T00:49:43.804Z","description":"In a Truth Social post, President Trump suggested putting the world’s strongest military alliance “to the test” by invoking its mutual defense clause.","url":"https://time.com/7357315/trump-nato-article-5-test-truth-social-post-us-border/","keywords":["Donald Trump","overnight","News Desk"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt27cc999944fc4175/6998cd12c8dcb40dbfb50ce6/donald-trump-nato.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Chad de Guzman","jobTitle":"Reporter","url":"https://time.com/author/chad-de-guzman/"}],"articleSection":"U.S.","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt27cc999944fc4175/6998cd12c8dcb40dbfb50ce6/donald-trump-nato.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"President Trump Returns To Washington DC From Switzerland","caption":"U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to reporters on board Air Force One while flying in between Ireland and Washington as he returns from the World Economic Forum on Jan. 22, 2026.","creditText":"Chip Somodevilla—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/us/","name":"U.S."}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/7357315/trump-nato-article-5-test-truth-social-post-us-border/","name":"Trump Suggests Invoking Article 5 to Get NATO to Help With U.S. Border"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Trump speaks as tensions over Greenland dominate Davos","description":"President Donald Trump delivered a defiant and combative address at the World Economic Forum on Wednesday, using the annual gathering of world leaders and business executives to tout America’s role in the world and pressing his case for the U.S. to acquire Greenland.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/oL9X8h53/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2026-01-21T22:05:27.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/oL9X8h53.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/7357315/trump-nato-article-5-test-truth-social-post-us-border/","duration":"PT2M31S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/7357315/trump-nato-article-5-test-truth-social-post-us-border/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```