Withdrawing from NATO Would Amount to National Self-Sabotage

(SeaPRwire) –   “NATO is an essential military alliance that safeguards shared national interests and strengthens America’s global standing.”

These are the words of Marco Rubio, currently Secretary of State who was a U.S. Senator at the time, included in a statement he and I released in 2023. We used that statement to announce our legislation that blocks any U.S. President from pulling the United States out of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization without congressional approval.

I first began developing this bill alongside the late Senator John McCain in 2018, and it was eventually signed into law as section 1250A of the 2024 defense bill, after passing the Senate with an overwhelming bipartisan vote. This cross-party legislation reflected a long-standing, strong consensus between both U.S. political parties on NATO: that the most powerful military alliance ever created is an irreplaceable force for democracy and peace, and it helps keep America safe.

But that consensus is now in jeopardy under President Donald Trump. When the alliance marked its 77th anniversary last week, Trump disparaged NATO as a “paper tiger” and spoke again about attempting to pull the U.S. out, marking the latest in a long line of threats to abandon the alliance.

No matter how embarrassing Trump chooses to make his ongoing anti-NATO outburst, he is powerless to act alone. He cannot withdraw from NATO unilaterally — the legislation I worked on with Secretary Rubio guarantees that — but Trump’s erosion of the bipartisan pro-NATO consensus makes America and the whole world less safe.

Trump has criticized NATO for what he sees as insufficient backing for his war in Iran. The Iran war is an ill-advised war of choice that Trump launched without even consulting the U.S. Congress.

NATO members have declined to join the war because they were never consulted, view the conflict as a terrible decision, and resent that Trump’s go-it-alone moves have added extra strain to their economies, which are already weighed down by his chaotic tariff policies.

In this regard, NATO and a majority of the American public are aligned. Geopolitically, Trump is the person who sucker-punches a stranger in a bar, stumbles into a brawl, then gets annoyed when his friends refuse to join in.

The U.S. gains direct, profound benefits from NATO. The alliance protects our national security and deters our adversaries. It allows us to operate from bases in allied nations, expanding our global reach and our ability to respond to crises in a way that no other country on Earth can match.

And while it is primarily a military alliance, it has also boosted economic prosperity and cultural exchange across the Atlantic. More than 964 million people live across the 32 NATO countries, and NATO member states make up over 30% of global GDP.

In Virginia, we are proud to host NATO Allied Command Transformation, where U.S. service members work, live, and train side-by-side with troops from other NATO countries — a powerful reminder of the alliance’s strength.

Finally, NATO has acted as a platform to promote democracy, freedom, and the rule of law. Leaving NATO would weaken the international rules-based order that so many Americans have fought and died to protect, and leave a void that China and Russia will be quick to fill.

If NATO’s critics are searching for a decisive reason to abandon the alliance, the defense spending issue — which has seen such dramatic, rapid improvement just in the past few years — is a poor candidate. In 2011, only five NATO nations met their commitment to spend 2% of GDP on defense. Thanks to President Trump’s effective advocacy, and growing awareness of Putin’s hostile intentions toward NATO nations, all 32 NATO member countries now meet that target. And in 2025, members agreed to raise that target to 5% within a decade.

NATO, with the U.S. as its leading partner, has stood firm against dictators and would-be emperors for decades. The alliance rallied the free world to out-innovate and outlast the Soviet Union. At its best, NATO can keep this trajectory going and stand up to an unpredictable Russia and a rising China. But the final choice rests in America’s hands.

Trump cannot withdraw from NATO without Congress’ approval. If he tries anyway, or works to destroy NATO through other methods, it will be a tragic mistake that leaves America far less safe.

But any such attempt will give Congress an opportunity to reassert itself as a coequal branch of government and issue a bipartisan rejection of Trump’s attempted act of national self-sabotage.