Can Donald Trump singlehandedly withdraw the US from NATO?

By Lauren Chadwick and Catherine Nicholls, CNN

(CNN) — For years, President Donald Trump has voiced sharp criticism of NATO, including a slew of statements since the beginning of the Iran war. In two recent interviews, he has said he would consider taking the significant step of withdrawing the United States from the alliance altogether.

Trump told Britain’s Telegraph newspaper in an interview published Wednesday that he would reconsider the US’ NATO membership. He later doubled down, telling Reuters he was “absolutely” considering withdrawing from the alliance.

The president has heavily criticized European countries for not being more willing to help with the war in Iran and to secure the Strait of Hormuz.

Yet despite Trump’s claims that he can withdraw the United States from the alliance, a law passed by Congress in 2023 says the move would require the advice and consent of the Senate, with two-thirds of senators in agreement, or an act of Congress.

The bill was co-sponsored by then-Sen. Marco Rubio, who is now the US secretary of state, and Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia. It was later passed as part of the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act.

The requirement for congressional approval means that even if all Republicans voted with Trump to withdraw the United States from NATO, it would require several Democrats — at least 14 if all Republicans are present — to join them to pass the legislation.

That’s unlikely to happen, as Sen. Thom Tillis, the top Republican on the bipartisan Senate NATO Observer Group, has warned against damaging the military alliance.

Tillis said in a March interview with ABC’s “This Week” that it is “factually not true” that Trump can pull out of NATO without Congress.

“The president of the United States cannot withdraw from NATO. Now, having said that, the president can poison the well. The president can make it functionally defunct if he wants to,” he said.

Tillis also defended NATO allies after Trump called them “cowards” for not assisting the United States. He said the president should ask his top generals if it would be a good idea to sever the relationship with NATO.

“You’d be hard pressed to find one, because that has enormous, enormous risk in it. American lives have been saved by the NATO alliance, and American lives will be lost in great numbers without it,” he said.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, meanwhile, said Wednesday in a social media post on X responding to Trump’s latest comments that the Senate “will not vote to leave NATO and abandon our allies just because Trump is upset they wouldn’t go along with his reckless war of choice.”

“Thank you to @SecRubio for sponsoring the bill in 2023 requiring a two thirds vote of the Senate to make sure clueless presidents couldn’t act on a whim,” Schumer added. He referred to Rubio’s social media post in 2023 celebrating the bill’s passage and declaring, “No U.S. President should be able to withdraw from NATO without Senate approval.”

Can Trump withdraw from NATO despite the 2023 law?

According to a Congressional Research Service report, if the president does attempt to withdraw the US unilaterally from NATO, the matter could end up in court.

A 2020 legal opinion from the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel states that the president has exclusive authority over treaties.

“In practice, presidents have often acted unilaterally in withdrawing the United States from treaties, especially during the last 50 years or so,” Curtis A. Bradley, the Allen M. Singer Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago Law School, told CNN in an email.

But he pointed out that President Joe Biden signed into law the 2023 statute stating that the president cannot withdraw from NATO without congressional approval.

“If Trump attempted to withdraw from NATO without obtaining Congress’ approval, he would be violating the statute,” Bradley added.

“His lawyers would likely argue that the statute is unconstitutional because, they would contend, it interferes with the president’s exclusive constitutional authority over foreign relations. I think that is a weak argument.”

“Congressional involvement is required under the Constitution in order for presidents to make treaties, which suggests that this is not an area of exclusive presidential power,” he said.

CNN’s Aileen Graef, Kaanita Iyer and Aleena Fayaz contributed to this report.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.