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WSJ : Trump Weighs Punishing Certain NATO Countries Over Lack of Iran War Suppor

Trump Weighs Punishing Certain NATO Countries Over Lack of Iran War Support

U.S. troops could be shifted toward alliance members in president’s good graces

The Trump administration is considering a plan to move U.S. troops from NATO countries unhelpful to the U.S. during the Iran war.
The proposal would station troops in supportive nations like Poland and Romania, potentially closing a U.S. base in Spain or Germany.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said NATO “turned their backs on the American people” over the last six weeks.

WASHINGTON—The Trump administration is considering a plan to punish some members of the NATO alliance that he believes were unhelpful to the U.S. and Israel during the Iran war, according to administration officials.

The proposal would involve moving U.S. troops out of North Atlantic Treaty Organization member countries deemed unhelpful to the Iran war effort and station them in countries that were more supportive of the U.S. military campaign. The proposal would fall far short of President Trump’s recent threats to fully withdraw the U.S. from the alliance, which by law he can’t do without Congress.

The plan, which has circulated and gained support among senior administration officials in recent weeks, is early in conception and one of several the White House is discussing to punish NATO. It underscores the growing rift between the Trump administration and European allies following the president’s decision to launch the war with Iran.

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte traveled to Washington on Wednesday to meet with Trump. Rutte has sought to deepen ties with Trump despite tensions in the trans-Atlantic alliance and was among those who convinced him not to take over Greenland.

“It’s quite sad that NATO turned their backs on the American people over the last six weeks when it’s the American people who have been funding their defense,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Wednesday. She said Trump plans to have a very “frank and candid conversation” with Rutte.

The U.S. has around 84,000 troops stationed across Europe, though the exact number varies from military exercises and rotational deployments. U.S. bases in Europe serve as a critical hub of global U.S. military operations, as well as provide an economic boon to the host country through investment. Bases in Eastern Europe also serve as a deterrent against Russia.

The White House declined to comment on the proposal. It couldn’t be determined which countries would lose troops, yet a number of alliance members have run afoul of Trump since he returned to office and more recently attracted his ire by objecting to the war in Iran.

Spain—the only NATO country that has not pledged to spend 5% of its GDP on defense—blocked U.S. planes involved in the Iran operation from using its airspace. Administration officials are also frustrated with Germany after top officials criticized Trump’s war, though Germany serves as one of the largest and most important hubs for the U.S. military to support its operations in the Middle East.

Italy also briefly blocked the U.S. use of an air base in Sicily, and the French government agreed to only allow the U.S. to use a base in southern France after it guaranteed planes not involved in Iran strikes would land there.

Beyond repositioning troops, the plan could also involve closing a U.S. base in at least one of the European countries, possibly Spain or Germany, according to the two administration officials.

Countries that could benefit because they are viewed as supportive include Poland, Romania, Lithuania and Greece, the officials said. The Eastern European countries have some of the highest defense spending rates in the alliance and were some of the first to signal they would support an international coalition to monitor the Strait of Hormuz. After war broke out, Romania quickly approved U.S. requests to allow its bases to be used by the U.S. Air Force.

The plan could result in putting more U.S. troops closer to the Russian border, an outcome likely to antagonize Moscow.

Trump on Monday said he was “very disappointed” with NATO and that their unwillingness to support the U.S. on the Iran war is “a mark on NATO that will never disappear.” He has frequently lashed out at the alliance and mused to aides in recent weeks about quitting the alliance altogether.

Last month he posted to his Truth Social platform that the member countries “HAVE DONE ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO HELP” in the war with Iran and added “U.S.A. NEEDS NOTHING FROM NATO.”

Senior European officials counter that they were never consulted on the war in advance to begin with, making it difficult to coordinate military response in the first days of the war. Two of NATO defense ministers, from Estonia and Italy, became stranded in Dubai when the U.S. launched the war as the United Arab Emirates closed down its commercial airspace.

The Iran war is the latest in a series of diplomatic crises that the alliance has faced since Trump came into office. Trump angered allies over steep tariffs on Europe and his engagement with Russian President Vladimir Putin over efforts to broker peace in Ukraine. Trump also triggered an extraordinary diplomatic crisis with NATO ally Denmark over his repeated efforts to annex Greenland, an Arctic island in the Danish kingdom.

During his first term in 2020, Trump ordered the withdrawal of around 12,000 troops from Germany, but President Joe Biden reversed the decision after taking office in 2021.

>>> US After Hours Summary: STAA +19.7% on strong Q1 guidance; APLD -5.8%, STZ -

After Hours Summary: STAA +19.7% on strong Q1 guidance; APLD -5.8%, STZ -1% lower on earnings

After Hours Gainers:

Companies trading higher in after hours in reaction to earnings/guidance: STAA +19.7% (guides Q1 revenue well above consensus), RELL +8.4%, RGP +5.1%

Companies trading higher in after hours in reaction to news: RCEL +7.3% (enters into long term agreement with BARDA valued up to $25.5 mln), MGNX +3.8% (FDA removes partial clinical hold on study of lorigerlimab), MRAM +2.6% (MRAM and MCHP announce manufacturing agreement to boost production capacity), DT +2.3% (to acquire Bindplane), NUAI +1.4% (commences stock offering), FBRX +1.1% (commences stock offering), BETR +1.1% (execs purchase shares on open market), XWIN +0.9% (announces key milestone in its AI strategy), ICFI +0.5% (awarded position on new $800 mln digital modernization BPA), AGX +0.3% (increases share repurchase authorization to $200 mln), DAL +0.3% (expects 2026 capital spend of about $5.5 bln; discusses fuel outlook), LHX +0.3% (co-development deal with Xoople for satellite constellation), NDAQ +0.1% (reports March monthly volumes)

After Hours Losers:

Companies trading lower in after hours in reaction to earnings/guidance: APLD -5.8%, STZ -1%, INFQ -0.7%, PSMT -0.1%

Companies trading lower in after hours in reaction to news: HURA -5% (files prospectus supplement relating to sales agreement; may offer up to $50 mln of common stock), AEHR -4.4% (enters equity distribution agreement, may offer up to $60 mln of common stock), ASRT -1.8% (to be acquired by Garda Therapeutics for $18/sh), PSFE -1.7% (MoonPay is now powering crypto payments inside its platform), INTC -0.9% (repurchased 49% interest from Apollo-managed funds in joint venture related to Intel's Fab 34 in Ireland), COST -0.5% (reports March comps), CAT -0.3% (CFO to retire, names new CFO), FDX -0.3% (reaches tentative agreement with Air Line Pilots Assn)

The Information : Nebius in Talks to Buy Israeli AI Startup AI21 After Nvidia De

Nebius in Talks to Buy Israeli AI Startup AI21 After Nvidia Deal Fizzles

The Takeaway

Nebius in talks to acquire Israeli AI startup AI21 Labs
Israeli AI startup AI21 Labs was previously valued at $1.4 billion
Deal by Nebius would expands AI services for cloud customers

Nebius, a cloud provider backed by Nvidia with a market cap of $32 billion, is in talks to buy Israeli-based AI startup AI21 Labs, according to people with knowledge of the deal.

The potential deal would help Amsterdam-based Nebius expand AI services for its customers beyond its main business of renting out servers. AI21 develops large language models and systems for enterprise agents. The Israeli-based startup, last valued at $1.4 billion in 2023, had discussed a sale to Nvidia last year, but the deal didn’t pan out, according to some of the people.

The discussions are ongoing and the companies may not reach an agreement. The potential acquisition price couldn’t be learned. Nvidia had considered buying AI21 for as much as $3 billion, Israeli news site Calcalist reported in December. The startup also held talks with other large technology suitors, according to one of the people.

The Nebius talks show the growing ambitions of upstart cloud providers including CoreWeave and Together AI. As demand for servers to run AI has surged over the last three years, they have been trying to diversify their customers and provide more AI tools to these developers.

“We do not comment on rumours and speculation. Nebius is building a full-stack AI cloud and we continuously evaluate opportunities to expand our platform to give AI builders and enterprises the capabilities they need,” said a Nebius spokesperson. AI21 founder Yoav Shoham declined to comment. A spokesperson for Nvidia didn’t have a comment.

AI21 Labs was founded in 2017 by Shoham, a Stanford University computer science professor who founded a calendar-scheduling startup acquired by Google; Ori Goshen, who founded telco analytics and network optimization startup CrowdX; and Amnon Shashua, CEO of autonomous driving company Mobileye, which Intel acquired in 2017 and spun out as a separately traded company in 2022.

As OpenAI’s ChatGPT took off, the startup tried to differentiate itself by providing models that are smaller and cheaper to run than those of other startups.

In 2023, the startup generated most of its revenue from Wordtune, an AI writing assistant for consumers, The Information reported at the time. In the past two years, it has pivoted to focus on building AI systems and specialized AI agents for enterprise customers. It employs about 200 people, according to LinkedIn.

Nebius was started in 2024 from the non-Russian assets of tech giant Yandex following Western sanctions on Russia in the wake of its invasion of Ukraine. Renamed Nebius, the company listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market in late 2024.

Revenue has been on a tear as Nebius has signed more large customers. Earlier this year, it announced Meta Platforms had struck a deal to spend $27 billion on its AI data centers over the next five years. Nebius has also been one of dozens of customers Nvidia has backed over the last few years. In March, Nvidia said it would invest $2 billion in Nebius.

It has already expanded beyond data centers. In February, it agreed to acquire Israeli startup Tavily, which develops search tools to help autonomous agents navigate the web. It also runs autonomous driving company Avride and ed tech business TripleTen and has stakes in database management startup ClickHouse and data labeling startup Toloka.

Other cloud and data center providers that have grown rapidly during the AI boom have also been buying software startups. Last year, CoreWeave bought Weights & Biases, a startup that helps developers build AI applications, for $1.7 billion. In August 2025, data center developer Crusoe purchased a Tel Aviv–based cloud computing startup, Atero, which develops software to improve the utilization and efficiency of graphics processing units.

The Information : Anthropic’s Revenue Growth Suggests OpenAI Is Overvalued

Anthropic’s Revenue Growth Suggests OpenAI Is Overvalued

The sooner Anthropic and OpenAI go public, the better—at least then we’d have proper financial disclosure. Both companies’ habit of updating the public on their revenue growth by references to either monthly revenue or annualized revenue, which is (loosely speaking) the last month’s revenue multiplied by 12, is getting old. And it’s not exactly what investors need to know.

Take Anthropic, which revealed Monday afternoon that it was now generating annualized revenue at a $30 billion rate, more than double where it was in mid-February. More significantly, that number implies Anthropic has now passed OpenAI, which a week ago said it was bringing in $2 billion a month in revenue (implicitly $24 billion in annualized revenue). And yet Anthropic raised money in February at a $380 billion valuation, while OpenAI last month finalized a fundraising at an $852 billion value. (For another angle on Anthropic, see our Dealmaker column tonight).

OpenAI looks way overvalued, which is bad news for investors in its last round, such as Amazon and SoftBank. They appear to have overpaid!

To be sure, the OpenAI-Anthropic comparison is more complicated. The two companies don’t calculate revenue in exactly the same way, as my colleague Sri Muppidi explained in this piece a couple of weeks ago. Anthropic counts all the revenue it gets from its cloud partners’ resale of its models, deducting their share as a sales and marketing expense.

OpenAI only counts the share of revenue it keeps from sales of its models by Microsoft’s Azure, its original cloud partner, Sri said. That implies OpenAI’s revenue is lower than it would be if it reported on the same basis as Anthropic. (There’s also the possibility that OpenAI increased its annualized revenue in the past week, although that seems a little unlikely.)

And let’s not forget that the annualized revenue metric is problematic to begin with. How certain is it that one month’s revenue can be extrapolated out over the next year? As my colleague Stephanie Palazzolo wrote last week, there have been signs that Anthropic’s server capacity may be under strain from all the increased usage. If customers encounter difficulties, they might switch to a different model.

Still, the question of which company is bigger right now is a little beside the point. It’s undeniable that Anthropic’s focus on business customers has turbocharged its growth, while OpenAI’s chaotic management seems to be holding the company back. Investors in OpenAI’s last round may indeed have overpaid, but there’s still time for the company to turn things around. Right now, though, Anthropic has the wind at its back.

FT : Iran demands crypto fees for ships passing Hormuz during ceasefire

Iran demands crypto fees for ships passing Hormuz during ceasefire

Country’s oil exporters’ union says toll to be paid in cryptocurrency and vessels monitored for weapons

Iran will demand that shipping companies pay tolls in cryptocurrency for oil tankers passing through the Strait of Hormuz, as it seeks to retain control over passage through the key waterway during the two-week ceasefire.

Hamid Hosseini, a spokesperson for Iran’s Oil, Gas and Petrochemical Products Exporters’ Union, told the FT on Wednesday that Iran wanted to collect tolling fees from any tanker passing and to assess each ship.

“Iran needs to monitor what goes in and out of the strait to ensure these two weeks aren’t used for transferring weapons,” said Hosseini, whose industry association works closely with the state.

“Everything can pass through, but the procedure will take time for each vessel, and Iran is not in a rush,” he added.

Decisions on the conditions for passing the strait are taken by Iran’s Supreme National Security Council. Hosseini’s remarks suggest Iran will require any tankers to use the northerly route close to its coastline, raising questions over whether western or Gulf state-linked vessels will be willing to risk transit.

Later on Wednesday Iran said it was halting the passage of oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz in response to Israeli strikes on Lebanon.

Before the halt Hosseini said that any tanker passing must email authorities about its cargo, after which Iran will inform them of the toll to be paid in digital currencies.

He said that the tariff is $1 per barrel of oil, adding that empty tankers can pass freely.

“Once the email arrives and Iran completes its assessment, vessels are given a few seconds to pay in bitcoin, ensuring they can’t be traced or confiscated due to sanctions,” Hosseini added.

Tankers in the Gulf on Wednesday received a radio broadcast that warned they would be targeted with military strikes unless they first gained approval from Iranian authorities.

“If any vessels try to transit without permission, [they] will be destroyed,” said the broadcast, which is in English, according to a recording shared with the FT.

The fate of transit through the strait is one of the thorniest issues facing negotiators as they try to turn a temporary ceasefire into a prolonged peace, with Iran’s desire to retain leverage over the key waterway clashing with fierce opposition from the US’s allies in the Gulf.

US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday night that the ceasefire was contingent on “the Islamic republic of Iran agreeing to the COMPLETE, IMMEDIATE, and SAFE OPENING of the Strait of Hormuz”, according to a social media post.

A statement from Iran’s Supreme National Security Council listed 10 points that form the basis for negotiations with the US, including a new “protocol for secure passage” through the strait in co-ordination with Iran’s armed forces.

Western ship owners said on Wednesday they were taking a cautious approach while waiting for details on how and whether the strait might reopen, with no vessels currently braving the transit apart from two linked to Iran.

Maersk, the world’s second biggest shipping line, said it is “working with urgency” to clarify the terms.

“The ceasefire may create transit opportunities, but it does not yet provide full maritime certainty,” the company said, adding that it would continue to take a “cautious approach” with cargoes and was not yet making changes to specific services.

Allowing Iran to continue to control the crucial waterway is likely to be highly unpalatable to Gulf states including Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE.

It also raises questions for Opec+, the oil producers’ group, with analysts warning that handing Iran control of Hormuz could fundamentally alter the balance of power within the organisation by giving Tehran a potential veto over rival members’ exports.

Ali Shihabi, a commentator close to the Saudi royal court, said the kingdom would demand “unimpeded” access to global markets.

“Allowing Iran any form of control over the strait would be a red line,” Shihabi said. “The priority has to be unimpeded access through the strait.”

On Wednesday Saudi Arabia’s key East-West pipeline, which the kingdom has been using to reroute oil exports to the Red Sea, was struck by a drone according to people familiar with the matter, despite the ceasefire.

Around 175mn barrels of crude and refined products are currently loaded on to 187 tankers in the Gulf, according to Kpler data — which could now start to move, depending on what happens in the strait.

Industry executives estimate that 300 to 400 ships are waiting to exit the Gulf as soon as it is possible to pass safely, with one describing it as a “car park”.

Several traders said they thought the situation in the coming days would resemble the system that has developed over the past fortnight, in which a handful of ships that have been approved by Iran are allowed to pass on a specific route.

During the conflict this was largely limited to vessels that had generally done business with Iran and that were not connected to the US, Israel or Gulf states that had provided staging for attacks.

Martin Kelly, head of advisory at maritime intelligence group EOS Risk, said that there was “no way” that the backlog of ships waiting to get out could be cleared in two weeks.

Around 10 to 15 ships might be able to transit the strait per day as the process was “quite time-consuming”, he said, down from 135 ships before the war.

>>> La Lettre -08/04/2026

Résumé — La Lettre du 8 avril 2026

🇫🇷 En français

1. Immigration : Nuñez bouscule ses préfets

Lors de la réunion des préfets du 2 avril, le ministre de l’intérieur Laurent Nuñez a amorcé une inflexion notable par rapport à la politique migratoire de son prédécesseur, en appelant à réévaluer les restrictions de régularisation par le travail. Cette posture a provoqué de vives résistances au sein du ministère : le secrétaire général Hugues Moutouh et le préfet Georges-François Leclerc, directeur de cabinet d’Emmanuel Macron, sont identifiés comme récalcitrants. Plusieurs préfets réclament en privé un arbitrage politique de Macron et de Lecornu sur la nouvelle “doctrine Nuñez”. Sur le dossier algérien, Nuñez a affirmé aux préfets que la coopération s’était améliorée, une lecture jugée naïve par plusieurs préfets contactés par La Lettre, alors qu’Alger n’a validé que 32 retours depuis le début de l’année.

2. Armées : Alice Rufo restructure son cabinet

La conseillère communication Barbara Frugier est promue directrice de cabinet adjointe, en remplacement de David Dominé-Cohn, qui devient conseiller éducation et mémoire. La ministre entend s’emparer politiquement de la résilience de la société civile, dans un contexte où un conflit de haute intensité est de plus en plus ouvertement envisagé par les états-majors européens.

3. Adit vise les Rencontres d’Aix

Le groupe Adit de Philippe Caduc a formalisé une offre pour acquérir entre 15 % et 20 % du capital du Cercle des économistes SAS, la structure organisatrice des Rencontres d’Aix-en-Provence. Dans ce schéma, les blocs Adit et CMA CGM représenteraient ensemble 30 à 40 % du capital, dans le cadre d’une ouverture à 49 %, l’événement étant valorisé entre 10 et 15 millions d’euros.

4. Danone lorgne Mead Johnson

Environ dix ans après un premier échec, Danone étudie discrètement avec la banque Centerview Partners un rachat de Mead Johnson, filiale de Reckitt Benckiser spécialisée dans la nutrition infantile. Le dossier est complexifié par des procès aux États-Unis visant la marque Enfamil, ce qui obligera Danone à avancer avec prudence pour évaluer les risques financiers et négocier un bon prix.

5. La Tribune en grève

Les journalistes de La Tribune ont voté à 92 % en faveur d’une grève pour le 13 avril, estimant que le plan social lancé par Jean-Christophe Tortora programme la disparition progressive du quotidien économique. Sur 56 journalistes, seuls 32 se verraient proposer un poste équivalent, dont 8 dans des fonctions inexistantes actuellement à La Tribune, ce qui revient à supprimer la moitié de la rédaction.

🇬🇧 In English

1. Immigration: Nuñez challenges his prefects

At the prefects’ meeting on 2 April, Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez signalled a meaningful shift from his predecessor’s migration policy, inviting prefects to ease restrictions on work-based regularisations. The move triggered sharp internal resistance: senior ministry figures including Secretary-General Hugues Moutouh and prefect Georges-François Leclerc are identified as opponents, with several prefects privately seeking a political arbitration from Macron and Lecornu on the new “Nuñez doctrine.” On Algeria, Nuñez claimed improved cooperation on deportations — a reading dismissed as naïve by several prefects, given that Algiers has accepted only 32 returns since January.

2. Defence: Alice Rufo reshuffles her cabinet

Communications adviser Barbara Frugier is promoted to deputy chief of staff at the Ministry for Armed Forces, replacing David Dominé-Cohn. The minister is positioning herself as the political champion of civilian resilience, a theme gaining traction as European military headquarters increasingly contemplate high-intensity conflict scenarios.

3. Adit eyes the Rencontres d’Aix

Philippe Caduc’s intelligence and influence group Adit has tabled a formal offer to acquire a 15–20% stake in the Cercle des économistes SAS, the organising structure of the Aix-en-Provence economics forum. Combined with CMA CGM’s parallel stake, the two minority blocks would represent 30–40% of capital under a 49% opening, valuing the event at €10–15m.

4. Danone eyes Mead Johnson

Nearly a decade after a first failed attempt, Danone is quietly exploring — with adviser Centerview Partners — a bid for Mead Johnson, Reckitt Benckiser’s infant nutrition subsidiary. The process is complicated by US litigation targeting the Enfamil brand, which will require Danone to move carefully and negotiate a price that accounts for potential financial liabilities.

5. La Tribune votes to strike

Journalists at La Tribune voted 92% in favour of a strike on 13 April, accusing management of engineering the slow death of the 41-year-old economic daily through a restructuring plan that would effectively cut the newsroom in half — with only 32 of 56 current journalists offered equivalent roles in the merged entity with BFM Business.

FT : Saudi Arabia’s east-west oil pipeline hit by drone attack

Saudi Arabia’s east-west oil pipeline hit by drone attack

Saudi Arabia’s vital east-west oil pipeline carrying crude from the Gulf to the Red Sea for export has been attacked, according to two people familiar with the matter.

The people said a pumping station, one of several along the 1,200km pipeline that has become an economic lifeline for the kingdom since the near closure of shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, was hit at about 1pm local time on Wednesday.

One of the people said it had been attacked by a drone and that the damage was being assessed.

Saudi Aramco, the state-owned oil company that owns and operates the pipeline, declined to comment. The company has been rerouting exports to the Red Sea via the line to avoid the Strait of Hormuz.

The attack on vital infrastructure comes hours after Iran and the US agreed a ceasefire deal on Tuesday evening US time.

FT : Iran demands fees for ships passing Hormuz during ceasefire

Iran demands fees for ships passing Hormuz during ceasefire

Oil exporters’ union says fees to be paid in cryptocurrency and vessels monitored for weapons

Iran will demand that shipping companies pay tolls in cryptocurrency for laden oil tankers passing through the Strait of Hormuz, as it seeks to retain control over passage through the key waterway during the two-week ceasefire.