"Some are very enthusiastic about it, and some aren't. Some are countries that we've helped for many, many years. We've protected them from horrible outside sources, and they weren't that enthusiastic. And the level of enthusiasm matters to me," Trump said at an event at the White House.
"I have it from a number of them, and I would like to say their names, but frankly I don't know if they want me to or not because maybe they don't want to be targeted," he continued. "But I say it wouldn't matter if you're being targeted or not because this is a paper tiger we're dealing with."
"It wasn't a paper tiger two weeks ago. It's a paper tiger," he added.
Iran has severely limited traffic in the Strait of Hormuz — through which roughly one-fifth of the world's oil supply flows — in retaliation for the U.S.-Israeli war in the country. The blockade has let to a global energy crisis and significantly raised oil prices.
Trump has called for a coalition of countries, including the U.S., to assist in dealing with the situation in the vital waterway, but so far countries have had a tepid response to that ask in public.
The president said on Sunday that he's asked "about seven" countries to join with the U.S. in policing the Strait of Hormuz, but many longtime U.S. allies, including Australia and Japan, have expressed skepticism to joining such a coalition.
"This is not our war, we have not started it," Germany's defense minister Boris Pistorius said in Berlin on Monday.
Speaking from the Oval Office later, Trump said he would soon reveal which countries have offered to help.
"There are a couple, we'll be announcing some names soon," he said. "There are some that really were right up front."
Trump also complained of the countries unwilling to aid in reopening the the strait.
"What does surprise me is they're not eager to help," he said, arguing that nations that rely on the waterway for oil, including China and Japan, "should be thanking us."
Read full report at TheHill.com.
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