Donald Trump has listed Australia among the allies he appears to be bitterly disappointed with, for not wanting to get involved with his war against Iran.

In a social media post overnight the US president said his country “has been informed by most of our Nato ‘allies’ that they don’t want to get involved … despite the fact that almost every country strongly agreed with what we are doing”.

“I am not surprised by their action,” he said, because he always considered Nato a “one way street – we will protect them, but they will do nothing for us, in particular, in a time of need”.

The president wrote:

Because of the fact that we have had such military success [against Iran], we no longer ‘need’ or desire the Nato countries’ assistance – we never did!

Likewise, Japan, Australia, or South Korea.

In fact, 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!

It is unclear whether he has asked for assistance from Australia. On Tuesday the deputy prime minister, Richard Marles, said Australia had not received any formal request for help in the strait of Hormuz.