Trump is furious at NATO over Iran. Withdrawal isn't his only option.
Trump is furious at NATO over Iran. Withdrawal isn't his only option.
Francesca Chambers and Cybele Mayes-Osterman, USA TODAYThu, April 2, 2026 at 5:54 PM UTC
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WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump is reexamining the United States’ relationship with NATO, as his irritation with America’s allies who refused to join the war against Iran reaches a climax.
“Unfortunately, after this conflict has concluded, we should reevaluate,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said March 31 on Fox News about the United States' role in the alliance.
“Right now, everything's on the table,” NATO Ambassador Matt Whitaker said April 1 on Newsmax.
1 / 0President Trump speaks to the nation on Iran from the White HouseA rainbow is seen above the White House in Washington, DC on April 1, 2026. US President Donald Trump will deliver a prime-time address on April 1, 2026 on the Iran war in the face of plunging approval ratings, economic jitters and spiralling diplomatic fallout.
Trump warned the same day that he was strongly reconsidering U.S. membership after weeks of open frustration with countries that prevented America from using bases on their soil.
Withdrawing from the military alliance that America helped found in the aftermath of World War II would be challenging under a 2023 law that went into effect while Trump was out of the White House – legislation that Rubio helped push through as a member of Congress. The law requires a two-thirds majority of the Senate to approve a withdrawal from NATO.
That may not stop the Trump administration, which has been zealous about testing the limits of executive authority.
In the president’s first term, the Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) said the president retains the exclusive constitutional authority to unilaterally withdraw from international treaties and agreements, John Deni, a research professor at the U.S. Army War College, pointed out.
“The jury is out, literally, on whether the president could unilaterally withdrawal from the NATO treaty, but it’s a possibility, at a minimum,” said Deni, a former political advisor to senior U.S. military commanders in Europe.
Although Trump has repeatedly hinted at a withdrawal, and a senior administration official indicated to USA TODAY that he was seriously considering one, there are many ways to unwind America’s involvement in NATO and limit the scope of the U.S. presence within the alliance, the official said.
The official did not elaborate on what those were but suggested that a reduction in funding for NATO was one of them. The official spoke before Trump and Rubio made their most recent remarks.
Trump has a range of potential options at his disposal, experts on the alliance said, including reducing American forces in eastern Europe, cutting funds for NATO and downgrading U.S. representation in the alliance.
“If he can't withdraw completely, he can bureaucratically gum up the works, if he wanted to,” retired Air Force colonel and intelligence officer Cedric Leighton said.
NATO is based on unanimous consent. Trump could take a page out of Hungarian President Viktor Orban’s playbook and veto or try to slow down joint initiatives, Leighton added.
“This would be a singular dismantling of everything that was built up since World War II.”
'They weren't there for us'
Trump has not explicitly said he plans to withdraw from NATO, although he’s made increasingly hostile remarks about the utility of the alliance.
"We would have always been there for them. But now, based on their actions, I guess we don't have to be, do we?" Trump said on March 27. "Why would we be there for them if they're not there for us? They weren't there for us."
President Donald Trump met with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, January 21.
Article 5 of the NATO treaty states that an attack against one member nation is an attack against all. Only one country has ever invoked the collective defense clause: the United States after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
The president has argued that the U.S. could save "hundreds of billions of dollars a year" by pulling back on its military support for allies. It is not clear where the figure comes from, but the U.S. maintains forces at bases across Europe.
NATO does not require its members to pay dues. The alliance had a $6.1 billion budget in 2026, roughly 16% of which is provided by the United States. That money is appropriated annually by Congress, where there is widespread support for the alliance.
Trump could try an end run around lawmakers administratively like he did with the United States Agency for International Development, or USAID, but Deni said trying to defund NATO would engender more blowback from Congress.
In a rare bipartisan brushback of Trump, former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican from Kentucky, joined Democratic Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware in condemning the president's recent threats against NATO.
“Alliance disputes are as old as the alliance itself. Americans are safer when NATO is strong and united. It is in our interest for all allies to tend this unity with care,” their joint statement said.
The senators said in the April 1 statement that the U.S. entered NATO in 1949, when the Senate voted to ratify the NATO treaty, and will remain in the 32-nation alliance.
NATO's ties to the U.S. run deeper than legislation. The alliance was founded in Washington more than 75 years ago. Americans hold important roles throughout its command structure.
For instance, the Supreme Allied Commander Europe position, one of NATO's most important, has always been held by an American general, beginning with U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Trump appointee and U.S. Air Force Gen. Alexus G. Grynkewich holds the position now.
Trump could reassign Grynkewich or try to force him out of the role, if he wanted to pull back on U.S. involvement, Deni said. He could also recall Whitaker as ambassador and permanently end rotational deployments in places like Poland, Latvia and Estonia that share a border with Russia.
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The Pentagon said in October that it would end a rotational brigade in Romania.
Trump has warned that U.S. membership in NATO is 'beyond reconsideration.'
Poland and the Baltic states worry that if Ukraine falls, they’ll be the first to face Russia's wrath. They spend more of their GDP, as a percentage of the population, on defense than other NATO nations.
Defense spending legislation Trump signed in 2025 makes it extremely difficult for the administration to drop below 76,000 troops in Europe. An estimated 85,000 American troops are currently stationed on the continent.
'We should reevaluate'
Trump has long groused about burden sharing within NATO. Many of those complaints died down after the alliance met Trump’s demands to more than double their spending on defense during their 2025 summit.
But a perceived lack of support for the U.S. in the conflict with Iran again brought them back to the fore.
Rubio told Fox News’ Sean Hannity on March 31 that if the friction has reached a point where the U.S. can no longer use allies’ bases, “Then NATO is a one-way street.”
“I think there's no doubt, unfortunately, after this conflict has concluded, we should reevaluate,” he said. “I do think unfortunately we are going to have to reexamine.”
Whitaker, the U.S. ambassador to NATO, said on April 1 that he was “reevaluating everything,” from U.S. involvement in NATO to support for Ukraine. He indicated in the Newsmax interview that Trump had not made a decision.
A spokesperson for NATO declined to comment.
Trump has been putting pressure on NATO nations to deploy their resources to police the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway off the coast of Iran that’s responsible for transporting a fifth of the world’s oil, as part of his campaign.
“You’ll have to start learning how to fight for yourself, the U.S.A. won’t be there to help you anymore, just like you weren’t there for us,” Trump said in a March 31 social media post. “The hard part is done. Go get your own oil!”
European officials have countered that the conflict is an American one and said they will not help police the strait until the war, which Trump did not bother to consult them on, has concluded. The United Kingdom is hosting 35 nations on April 2 for talks.
Some European bases, air defense systems off limits for Iran war
A growing number of European nations have also maintained that military bases within their borders are off-limits for aircraft headed to attack Iran, including Spain and Austria. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer previously barred the United States from using bases in his country for offensive attacks Iran, but backpedaled within days.
"We don't authorize either the use of military bases or the use of airspace for actions related to the war in Iran," Spanish Defense Minister Margarita Robles told reporters on March 30.
Italy also reportedly denied the United States access to Sigonella Air Base in Sicily, although the government later released a statement saying requests to use bases on its land is "carefully examined on a case-by-case basis." Austria, which is not a NATO member, has also denied the United States use of its air bases, according to reports.
The Pentagon said in a statement that “Italy is currently supportive in providing access, basing and overflight for U.S. forces.”
The United States is also repositioning key air defense systems from Europe to the Middle East. Poland has said its own air defense systems are not going anywhere.
Poland’s Deputy Prime Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz sought to downplay the tension in a March 31 social media post that asserted that Patriot missile batteries in Poland that are used to protect NATO's eastern flank are staying put. "We are not planning to relocate them anywhere," he wrote.
“Amid the emotions surrounding Donald Trump's words, one must keep a cool head,” he wrote April 1. “There is no NATO without the USA, but there are no strong United States without allies either. Without us. It works both ways.”
The U.S. has already repositioned air defense systems closer to the Middle East in response to the Iran war, according to reports and officials. Turkey's defense ministry said last month that a U.S. Patriot system was moved from Ramstein Air Base in Germany to the country's Incirlik Air Base.
Air defense systems like Patriots and Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) systems were already in short supply before the war.
The Army has just 14 available Patriot batteries, Gen. James Mingus, then the vice chief of staff of the Army, said last year, and just eight THAAD systems, according to the Congressional Research Service.
A request from the United States to the Europeans or other non-European allies to support missile defense needs in the Middle East would be "not surprising," said David Shank, a retired colonel who served as the commandant to the Army's air defense artillery branch, among other roles.
"They're not built overnight," Shank said of crucial air defense systems like Patriot and THAAD. "The inventories are not huge to begin with."
"The challenges" of interceptor stockpiles running low "are unfolding in real time," he said.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump is furious at NATO over Iran. Can he pull the US out?
Source: “AOL Breaking”
