NATO is considering ending its tradition of annual summits to avoid confrontation with US President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly called the alliance obsolete and criticized it as a paper tiger. Trump declared NATO obsolete in 2017 and has questioned US commitment, though a 2023 law co-sponsored by Marco Rubio prohibits presidential withdrawal without Senate approval. European allies face a strategic dilemma: wait out Trump's presidency hoping for renewed US leadership, or build independent European defense capabilities despite lacking NATO's 75 years of operational expertise. NATO countries are responding by increasing defense spending to Cold War levels and accelerating defense production at rates unseen in four decades, though allies acknowledge needing five or more years to develop actual military capabilities independent of US leadership.
Trump's threats and ability to undermine NATO
- ▪Donald Trump withdrew from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty in 2019
- ▪A United States officer has occupied NATO's highest military command post since General Dwight D. Eisenhower first took command in 1950
- ▪NATO Article 5 declares that allies shall regard an armed attack against one of them as an armed attack against all
- ▪Donald Trump called on allies to pay the United States for security in a 1990 Playboy interview
- ▪A 2023 law co-sponsored by Marco Rubio prohibits the president from withdrawing from NATO without a two-thirds Senate vote or congressional law
- ▪George W. Bush withdrew from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in 2002 without congressional authorization
- ▪Donald Trump declared NATO obsolete in 2017 when entering the White House
- ▪Donald Trump said withdrawing from NATO was beyond reconsideration when asked about it in April 2026
- ▪NATO Article 5 makes clear that each ally can take such action as it deems necessary in response to an attack
Europe's path toward a transformed, less U.S.-centered NATO
- ▪The NATO alliance that evolved over 75 years is United States-led and United States-centered
- ▪NATO has guided Europe's collective defense effort since 1950
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