Republicans Take Away Trump's Ammunition

Republicans have taken away some of Donald Trump's greatest leveraging power in foreign policy while president, blocking him from carrying out one of his longest-held threats if he is reelected next year.

On Thursday, the House, led by a razor-thin Republican majority, passed the $886 billion National Defense Authorization Act, sending the legislation to President Joe Biden's desk, where he is expected to sign it into law on Friday.

The annual defense policy bill included a bipartisan measure introduced by Senators Marco Rubio, a Republican, and Tim Kaine, a Democrat, that would prevent any president from unilaterally withdrawing the U.S. from NATO without approval from the Senate or an act of Congress.

The provision throws a wrench into Trump's foreign policy strategy, which has long maintained that NATO is a drain on American resources. Formed after World War II as a response to the threat posed by the Soviet Union, the military alliance promises that an armed attack on any member of the 31 member states "shall be considered an attack against them all."

Newsweek reached out to the Trump campaign via email for comment.

Decades before he even ran for office, Trump questioned the purpose and efficiency of NATO, writing in his 2000 book, The America We Deserve, that European "conflicts are not worth American lives. Pulling back from Europe would save this country millions of dollars annually." He called the alliance "obsolete" and "unfair economically" to the U.S. during his 2016 presidential campaign.

As president, he repeatedly threatened to withdraw the U.S. from the alliance—including, most famously, at the 2018 NATO summit, during which he said member nations must increase defense spending to relieve the burden on the U.S. or America would go it alone. A year later, he insisted that the U.S. "will be with NATO 100 percent" but said the other members would "have to step up."

His open hostility to the alliance reemerged last year after he called NATO a "paper tiger" amid Russia's war on Ukraine. More than a half-dozen current and former European diplomats said there was growing concern in their home governments that a second Trump term would bring a U.S. pullout and an all-out end to NATO, The New York Times reported last week.

Ahead of the 2024 presidential race, Trump, the GOP's overwhelming front-runner, has said little about his plans for NATO. He has privately discussed pulling the U.S. out unless his demands are met and signaled his refusal to appoint "NATO lovers" to senior Cabinet positions, Rolling Stone reported in October. A single line on his campaign website states, "We have to finish the process we began under my administration of fundamentally re-evaluating NATO's purpose and NATO's mission."

In response to the Rolling Stone report, Kaine, who led the bipartisan measure in Congress, said on X (formerly Twitter), "Pulling out of NATO would be dangerous and reckless. America is stronger amongst our allies, and we need to get this signed into law."

But pro-NATO Trump allies, like GOP Senator Lindsey Graham, have insisted that "he's not going to do that."

"What he will do is, he will make people pay more, and I think that will be welcome news to a lot of folks," Graham told the Times.

Applauding the passage of his measure in the Senate on Wednesday, Kaine said the bill "reaffirms U.S. support for this crucial alliance that is foundational for our national security."

"It also sends a strong message to authoritarians around the world that the free world remains united," the Virginia Democrat said, noting NATO's critical role in the West's response to the Ukraine war.

Rubio, who co-sponsored the bill, said in a statement, "The Senate should maintain oversight on whether or not our nation withdraws from NATO. We must ensure we are protecting our national interests and protecting the security of our democratic allies."