An American congressman officially calls for the withdrawal of the US from NATO. “Let's use that money to defend our own country, not the socialist countries,” he says
NATO headquarters. Photo: Cineberg Ug | Dreamstime.com
US Congressman Thomas Massie has officially proposed the withdrawal of the United States from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
“NATO is a relic of the Cold War. We should withdraw from NATO and use that money to defend our own country, not the socialist countries,” said Thomas Massie
“NATO was created to counter the Soviet Union, which collapsed more than thirty years ago. Since then, US participation has cost taxpayers trillions of dollars and continues to present the risk of US involvement in foreign wars. Our Constitution did not authorize permanent involvement in foreign relations, something our Founding Fathers explicitly warned us against. America should not be the world's security blanket—especially when rich countries refuse to pay for their own defense,” says the congressman.
He formally requested President Trump to formally notify NATO of the US withdrawal under Article 13 of the North Atlantic Treaty.
“NATO's original purpose during the Cold War no longer aligns with current US national security interests,” he says, adding that “European NATO members have adequate economic and military capacity to provide for their own defense.”
Senator Mike Lee (Republican of Utah) has introduced the related bill, S.2174, in the United States Senate, according to Thomas Massie's press release.
Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened or hinted at the idea of the United States leaving NATO, but has not actually withdrawn the country, and there is no clear and formal plan on record that has reached the point of legal notice of withdrawal. Public reports and expert analysis portray his approach as using the threat of withdrawal as leverage to push allies to spend more on defense rather than a fully developed and executed decision to leave the alliance.
What Trump said and signaled
Trump has repeatedly questioned the value of NATO, calling it “obsolete” early in his political career and has openly reflected on not defending allies that do not meet spending targets, which many observers interpret as a signal of a willingness to withdraw from the alliance. There are also reports that European governments have prepared contingency plans should the US decide to leave NATO or drastically degrade its role, precisely because its rhetoric about withdrawal has been taken seriously as a risk.
Legal and political constraints
At the same time, domestic US law now makes an effective exit more difficult: Congress has inserted provisions in defense legislation that require Senate approval for any withdrawal from NATO, limiting the president's ability to unilaterally withdraw the US
The text of the NATO Act is available at this link.
