The White House confirmed on Wednesday (US time) that American President Donald Trump was mulling the United States’ possible exit from the NATO alliance.
Responding to previously emerging reports on the issue, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that the POTUS would be discussing the matter in his meeting with the alliance’s secretary general, Mark Rutte. The alliance’s failure to support the US in its Iran attacks was cited as the prime reason for the potential NATO withdrawal.
White House statement on possible NATO exit
Relaying Trump’s statement, Leavitt told reporters ahead of the meeting that NATO allies “were tested and failed” when the POTUS launched a war with Iran and they didn’t come to America’s aid.
“And I would add, it’s quite sad that NATO turned their backs on the American people over the course of the last six weeks, when it’s the American people who have been funding their defense,” she added. Leavitt foregrounded that the Republican politician was looking forward to engaging in a “very frank and candid conversation” with Mark Rutte.
When asked if the NATO exit was still on the table, Leavitt said, “it’s something the president has discussed and I think it’s something the president will be discussing in a couple of hours with Secretary General Rutte.”
The US president also took to his Truth Social platform to declare, “NATO WASN’T THERE WHEN WE NEEDED THEM, AND THEY WON’T BE THERE IF WE NEED THEM AGAIN. REMEMBER GREENLAND, THAT BIG, POORLY RUN, PIECE OF ICE!!!”
Trump, however, cannot unilaterally withdraw the US from NATO under a 2023 law. Any such decision would require a two-thirds Senate approval or a formal act of Congress.
NATO chief speaks out after Trump meeting
Rutte, on his part, said that he understood Trump’s “disappointment” with NATO allies over the Iran conflict. After his meeting with Trump late Wednesday, alliance chief still maintained in his conversation with CNN’s Jake Tapper that many European nations helped in other ways.
Without sharing details of the closed-door meeting with Trump, Rutte described it as an open discussion between “two good friends.” Declining to answer whether the US president said he would push for a NATO withdrawal, Rutte ultimately said, “Well, as I said, there is a disappointment, clearly, but at the same time, he was also listening (carefully) to my arguments of what is happening.”
He also emphasised that much of Europe supports Trump on the issue of taking out Iran’s capacity to “export chaos.”