President Trump said Wednesday that he is “absolutely” considering withdrawing the United States from the NATO military alliance and plans to address his concerns in a primetime Oval Office speech focused on the Iran war.
“Oh, absolutely without question. Wouldn’t you do that if you were me?” Trump told Reuters reporter Steve Holland when asked whether he was weighing an exit from the transatlantic alliance.
Trump’s comments followed remarks he made to The Telegraph, where he said NATO’s future is “beyond reconsideration” after European leaders restricted U.S. access to military bases during the monthlong Iran conflict and declined U.S. requests for naval support to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
“I was never swayed by NATO. I always knew they were a paper tiger, and [Russian President Vladimir] Putin knows that too, by the way,” he said.
For decades, NATO has been a cornerstone of U.S. foreign policy, binding the United States, Canada, and most major European nations to a collective defense agreement against external threats.
During both of his terms, Trump has pressured NATO members to increase defense spending. Last year, he shifted the financial burden of U.S. weapons sent to Ukraine—though not a NATO member—onto allied nations to sustain Kyiv’s resistance against Russian forces.
Any move to withdraw the U.S. from NATO would likely face strong bipartisan opposition. However, unilateral presidential withdrawal from international agreements has become more common, and Trump has previously exited treaties, including those related to climate change and arms control.
In 2023, former President Joe Biden signed legislation coauthored by then-Sen. Marco Rubio—now Trump’s secretary of state—requiring congressional approval before any U.S. withdrawal from NATO. Trump could challenge that law, arguing it unconstitutionally limits presidential authority over military and diplomatic matters, a position his team has taken in other cases.
The Senate originally ratified the NATO treaty in 1949 at the outset of the Cold War, and the alliance has remained a central counterweight to Russia’s influence in Eastern Europe.
NATO members include the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Italy, Poland, and Turkey. The alliance expanded eastward after the Cold War, adding Poland in 1999 and Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania in 2004, bringing NATO to Russia’s borders.
Tensions between the U.S. and its allies have intensified over the Iran conflict. Spain barred U.S. use of the jointly operated Rota naval base and Morón air base last month and, on Monday, closed its airspace to American warplanes.
The United Kingdom “took far too much time” to approve U.S. use of its air bases and the Diego Garcia facility in the Indian Ocean, Trump said last month.
Italy also denied U.S. military aircraft permission to land at its Sigonella air base in Sicily on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Germany criticized Trump for launching strikes against Iran without consulting NATO partners, and French President Emmanuel Macron stated, “France will never take part in operations to open or liberate the Strait of Hormuz.”
Lets Leave NATO
We do all the work & they dont care same for UN.
Besides they buy OUR oil not from Mid East
Trump is correct to criticize nato and the United Nations! We use our money and treasure to remove the threat that Iran has posed for years! Time to have these people step up or we need to step out!
With friends like we have in NATO, who needs enemies? I have never forgiven France for refusing to fly over their airspace way back when we had to do the airstrike on Omar Kadafee in lybia.
NATO either has to ‘step up’ on their obligations or we must get out of NATO.
Or we just do as these other NATO nations have done to us … stay in NATO but do as little as possible to solve their likely problems in Europe ( lip service with no action ).
Yes, their problems soon become ours also, but WE ARE NOT THEIR BABYSITTER!
During the 2nd WW they were strong enough to battle each other AND US, but now they rely on the U.S. taxpayer to be their protector, saying that they are too small in power to be able to do anything. Who’s fault, if true, is that?
But they are unwilling to do what is necessary to protect themselves … or to help us!
An example: they get much of their oil, etc., from the mid-east nations, but they want us to protect the flow of oil. They won’t do anything to assist in regard for that protection … protection of their own needs. They want us to pay for it all with no cost to them!
Is this their way of getting back at us for doing the major part of winning the 2nd WW?
Is this what their European political socialism has caused?
And for those who think that socialism is so good … remember that ‘NAZI’ stands for ‘National SOCIALIST Party’. Where has it ever done good? It ALWAYS eventually fails!
And as for France ( as the one commentator above mentioned ) … in the 1800s, they tried to overpower all of Europe and lost. Then they lost in the 1st AND 2nd WWs. Then they got kicked out of Vietnam ( No we didn’t get kicked out. WE left. We NEVER lost ONE major encounter while there. We lost POLITICALLY at home ).
The French government ( many of their people are good people, but I can’t say that about their government ) is NEVER to be relied on. Not EVER! They believe that all of the rest of us are barbarians and that they are the only cultured people in the world.
Eating snails, women with hairy legs and armpits, men in bikinis ….cultured?
Americans (mainly the Conservative Voters): Hello. More important, CANCEL USA MEMBERSHIP IN THE U.N., that “organization” totally anti-America, which constantly tries to violate our sovereignty by plans to intrude in our Electrical gride and water supply systems WITHIN OUR CONUS, try to impose a “world tax” onto USA citizens, and push the “small arms treaty” to disarm our USA. NO WAY!
AND: with the cancellation, immediately withdraw “diplomatic immunity” to all foreign officials working from the “u.n.” Building and deport them; USA to confiscate the “u.n.” Building via Eminent Domain under National Security, rezone the building as Federal property under the Dept f the Interior and devoid of any “nyc jurisdiction or control”, zoned as commercial offices and residential condos.