U.S. allies in Europe and elsewhere are continuing to rebuff President Donald Trump’s demands they help reopen the Strait of Hormuz amid the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran, despite Trump’s ultimatums, pleas and claims that, actually, “we no longer need” their help after all.

(Rounding out the mixed messaging, Trump also claimed Monday that “numerous countries” were already “on the way” to help, but declined to say which ones.)

Turns out allies don’t like helping when all you do is insult them.

“They should be in here very happily helping us,” Trump told reporters Monday. “They should be jumping to help us because we’ve helped them for years.”

Trump struck a different tone Tuesday in a post on social media.

“Speaking as President of the United States of America, by far the Most Powerful Country Anywhere in the World, WE DO NOT NEED THE HELP OF ANYONE!”

Here’s what the rest of the world is saying:

European Union Foreign Policy Chief Kaja Kallas told Reuters that “nobody is ready to put their people in harm’s way in the Strait of Hormuz.”

“We have to find ... diplomatic ways to keep this open so that we don’t have a ... food crisis, fertilizers crisis, energy crisis in the world,” she said.

Kallas added that the 27-nation bloc would be open to looking at ways to replicate a deal that helped get grain out of Ukraine amid the war in the country, telling Reuters that the United Nations is already working on that.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said Greece, a major force in global shipping, would not join any military operations near Iran.

“Greece is not going to participate in any operation around the theater of current operations,” he told a Bloomberg event Tuesday in Athens. “I doubt that there is much European appetite for such a mission right now.”

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius echoed a similar sentiment.

“The Americans chose this path, together with the Israelis,” he said, according to Politico, noting Germany would prioritize defending NATO territory.

“We did not start this war,” he added.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said, “NATO has no place here at all,” arguing it is “a defensive alliance, not an interventionist one.”

U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer has voiced support for a plan to reopen the critical shipping lane, but has notably stopped well short of committing British resources to doing so.

“Ultimately, we have to reopen the Strait of Hormuz to ensure stability in the [oil] market. That is not a simple task,” Starmer told reporters Monday.

“So we’re working with all of our allies, including our European partners, to bring together a viable collective plan that can restore freedom of navigation in the region as quickly as possible and ease the economic impact.”

Denmark, which in 2024 helped safeguard traffic in the Red Sea amid strikes by Houthi militants in Yemen, has been far more reticent to commit to similar action off the coast of Iran.

In comments Monday, Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen told journalists the country would like to see a coordinated European response.

“Even if we don’t like what’s going on, I think it’s wise to keep an open mind on whether Europe ... in some way can contribute, but with a view towards de-escalation,” he said. “Denmark is a sea-faring nation and we have in every way an interest in ensuring free navigation.”

French President Emmanuel Macron said Tuesday the country will not take part in any immediate operation to reopen Hormuz, but might reconsider “once the situation is calmer.”

“We are not party to the conflict,” he said at a defense council meeting. “France did not choose this war. We are not taking part in it. We have a purely defensive position. Our objectives are clear: to protect our nationals, our diplomatic and military sites, and our interests in the region.”

Madrid’s defense and foreign affairs ministers on Monday flatly ruled out any action in Hormuz.

Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares called the war a “spiral of violence” and an “escalation that does not have clear objectives” in an interview with La Razón, a Spanish newspaper.

Defense Minister Margarita Robles meanwhile said that “Spain is not considering any mission in Hormuz. What we are considering is the demand that the war end.”

Catherine King, Australia’s Transport Minister, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation Monday the country doesn’t plan to pitch in on Trump’s crisis, either.

“We won’t be sending a ship to the Strait of Hormuz,” she said. “We know how incredibly important that is, but that’s not something that we’ve been asked or that we’re contributing to.”

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