The increasingly likely return of Donald Trump to the White House is raising bipartisan concerns in Congress about the possibility that a tycoon who has returned to the presidency stronger and better prepared will make the absurd attempt to withdraw the United States from NATO. And so, without fanfare, a measure was inserted into the annual military spending bill passed last week that expressly prohibits any president from deciding to leave the Atlantic Alliance without the consent of two-thirds of the Senate or an act of Congress. This is a bipartisan initiative, sponsored by Democratic Senator Tim Kain and Republican Senator Marco Rubio, which, particularly given its renewed importance following Russia's aggression against Ukraine, clearly reaffirms Congress's commitment to supporting NATO without directly referring to Trump, who repeatedly attacked the Atlantic Alliance during his first term in office.
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“NATO has responded strongly to Putin's war in Ukraine and the increasing challenges in the world,” said Senator Kaine, who stressed the need to reaffirm “US support for this critical alliance.” “We must ensure that we protect our national interests and the security of our Democratic allies,” repeated the Republican Rubio, speaking of the measure that passed in the Senate with 87 votes to 13 against and in the House of Representatives with 310 votes for and 118 against .
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In all four years of his first term, Trump publicly criticized NATO, primarily accusing the allies of reneging on their defense spending commitments and relying on those of the United States. And behind closed doors, his former employees reported, the tycoon explicitly spoke about leaving NATO on several occasions. John Bolton, his national security adviser, recently expressed his belief that “Trump would certainly want to leave NATO in a second term.” The former president's campaign website, meanwhile, says: “We have completed the process of fundamentally reassessing NATO's goals and missions that began under my administration.” Then there are those who remember that Trump long before his descent into politics in 2000 called for withdrawal from NATO, stating that this would “save our country millions of dollars every year.” The cost of maintaining NATO troops in Europe is enormous and these resources could clearly be put to better use.”
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