Key Senators Reject Trump Talk of Pulling Out of NATO Over Iran War Disagreements

Two influential senators are shooting down President Trump’s talk of potentially leaving the North Atlantic Treaty Organization amid his frustration with European nations not participating in his war against Iran. On Wednesday, Reuters asked Mr. Trump if he is considering leaving NATO, and he responded, “Oh, absolutely without question. Wouldn’t you do that if you were me?” In an interview with a British outlet, the Telegraph, he called NATO a “paper tiger” and said, “We would always have been there for them. They weren’t there for us.”But some influential senators are rejecting his call to leave the alliance. In a joint statement, Senator Mitch McConnell, the former Senate majority leader, and Senator Chris Coons noted the sacrifices of NATO troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and said, “The United States must not take this sacrifice — nor our allies’ commitment to make it again — lightly.”“Alliance disputes are as old as the alliance itself. Americans are safer when NATO is strong and united. It is in our interest for all allies to tend this unity with care,” the pair added. “[The] United States joined NATO in 1949 when the Senate voted to ratify the NATO treaty, and the United States will remain in it.”Mr. Coons, a Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations and Appropriations Committee, has been a vocal critic of the president’s actions in Iran, which he has called “chaotic.” However, Mr. McConnell, who is retiring at the end of this term, has been publicly supportive of the war. Leaving NATO is not as simple as the president making a unilateral decision to leave the alliance, thanks to a provision of the National Defense Authorization Act sponsored by Secretary of State Marco Rubio when he was a senator.In 2023, Mr. Rubio and Senator Tim Kaine spearheaded an effort to put restrictions on a president’s ability to unilaterally leave NATO. A clause in the NDAA states, “The President shall not suspend, terminate, denounce, or withdraw the United States from the North Atlantic Treaty… except by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, provided that two-thirds of the Senators present concur, or pursuant to an Act of Congress.”The law also prevents any funds from being used to “support, directly or indirectly, any decision” to withdraw from NATO.The limitation marked the first time that the Senate passed a law explicitly preventing a president from unilaterally withdrawing from a treaty, according to the Congressional Research Service. Mr. Trump has long railed against NATO members for, in his words, not paying their “dues.” He has also suggested that they “owe us a tremendous amount of money.”His comments most likely referred to NATO members who fail to meet the alliance’s target of having each member spend 2 percent of their gross domestic product on defense, though those funds would not be going to America. And as the war in Iran stretches on, the president has become increasingly vocal in his criticism of NATO for not helping to open the Strait of Hormuz. NATO countries have said they were not consulted prior to the strikes, and some countries have expressed opposition to the operation.Last week, at an investment forum, Mr. Trump said, “We would have always been there for them, but now, based on their actions, I guess we don’t have to be, do we?”“I’ve been saying that. Why would we be there for them if they’re not there for us? They weren’t there for us,” he added.Despite his claim that NATO was not “there for us,” the alliance, for the only time in its history, invoked the collective defense clause, Article 5, after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and soldiers from NATO countries were deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq.

Key Senators Reject Trump Talk of Pulling Out of NATO Over Iran War Disagreements

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