Momentum is building among some Republicans and SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk to withdraw the U.S. from NATO amid stalled negotiations to end the war in Ukraine.
While President Donald Trump reportedly privately floated pulling the U.S. from the alliance during his first term, Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, has publicly backed such efforts in recent weeks and said it’s “time to leave” the alliance after NATO countries held an emergency meeting with Ukraine in London without the U.S.
Lee said in an X post on Sunday that if “NATO is moving on without the U.S.,” the U.S. should “move on from NATO.” Lee also suggested various names for the movement on Monday.
“What should we call the movement to get America out of NATO? AmerExit? NATexit?” Lee said in an X post on Monday, referencing Brexit, the term used to describe the U.K.’s withdrawal from the European Union.
“It’s a good thing our NATO allies give us such favorable trade terms based on the fact that we provide a disproportionate share of their security needs Oh wait ….They don’t,” Lee said in another Monday post on X.
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Lee isn’t the only lawmaker expressing such sentiments. Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., said Sunday in a post on X that “NATO is a Cold War relic that needs to be relegated to a talking kiosk at the Smithsonian.”
The lawmakers’ comments also come after Musk, who is heading up the Trump administration’s newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), also shared support for withdrawing from NATO Saturday. Musk said “I agree” in a post on X, in response to another post claiming it’s time for the U.S. to detach itself from NATO and the United Nations.
The push to pull out of NATO coincides with stalled negotiations to end the war in Ukraine as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has sought for Ukraine to become a NATO member after Russia invaded his country in 2022. But Trump kicked Zelenskyy out of the White House on Friday after meeting to secure a deal, saying Zelenskyy was welcome back when he was ready for peace.
Pulling the U.S. from NATO would require Congressional approval. A bipartisan provision included in the 2024 National Defense Authorization Bill requires that the executive branch would need support from 60 senators, or passage of legislation in Congress, to pull out of the alliance. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., and then-Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., who is now Trump’s Secretary of State, spearheaded the provision.
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Scott Anderson, a fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution think tank, said the provision paves the way for a legal battle should the executive branch attempt to unilaterally withdraw the U.S. from the alliance.
“The logic is, essentially, you’re teeing up a fight if the president tries to do this without Congress … it specifically does enact exactly that sort of prohibition and says, essentially, we’re going to litigate this out and take it to the Supreme Court if you try and do this, which is the most Congress can do,” Anderson told Fox News Digital.
Even so, Anderson noted that it’s not completely clear who would have legal standing to challenge an effort to withdraw from NATO, although Anderson said service members or people who own property in NATO countries are some who could arguably have standing and challenge the move.
Most Americans maintain a favorable opinion of NATO, although support has dropped slightly in recent years. Fifty-eight percent of Americans hold a favorable view of the military alliance, according to a survey the Pew Research Center released in May 2024. However, that’s four percentage points from the previous year, the survey said.
Meanwhile, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth urged NATO allies to beef up defense contributions to the alliance in February.
“NATO should pursue these goals as well,” Hegseth told NATO members in Brussels in February. “NATO is a great alliance, the most successful defense alliance in history, but to endure for the future, our partners must do far more for Europe’s defense.”
“We must make NATO great again,” he said.
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As of 2023, the U.S. spent 3.3% of its GDP on defense spending, amounting to $880 billion, according to the nonpartisan Washington, D.C.-based Peterson Institute for International Economics. More than 50% of NATO funding comes from the U.S., while other allies, like the United Kingdom, France and Germany, have contributed between 4% and 8% to NATO funding in recent years.
Hegseth urged European allies to bolster defense spending from 2% to 5% of gross domestic product, as Trump has long advocated.
NATO comprises more than 30 countries and was originally formed in 1949 to halt the spread of the Soviet Union.
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