Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) introduced a bill on Tuesday to withdraw the United States from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
In a Tuesday press release, Massie described NATO as a “Cold War relic” and argued that the United States should withdraw from the organization and use the money America contributes to the alliance to “defend our own country, not socialist countries.”
“NATO was created to counter the Soviet Union, which collapsed over thirty years ago. Since then, U.S. participation has cost taxpayers trillions of dollars and continues to risk U.S. involvement in foreign wars,” the Kentucky congressman said. “Our Constitution did not authorize permanent foreign entanglements, something our Founding Fathers explicitly warned us against. America should not be the world’s security blanket—especially when wealthy countries refuse to pay for their own defense.”
The bill proposed by Massie would require President Donald Trump to formally inform NATO that the United States will withdraw from the organization under Article 13, which states, “After the Treaty has been in force for twenty years, any Party may cease to be a Party one year after its notice of denunciation has been given to the Government of the United States of America, which will inform the Governments of the other Parties of the deposit of each notice of denunciation.”
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Massie’s bill claims that the original purpose of NATO is no longer aligned with America’s current national security interests and that European NATO members now have the military and economic capabilities to “provide for their own defense.” The bill would also prevent the United States from contributing taxpayer funds for NATO’s common budgets.
The Kentucky congressman’s bill states, “No funds authorized to be appropriated, appropriated, or otherwise made available by any Act may be used to fund, directly or indirectly, United States contributions to the common-funded budgets of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, including the civil budget, the military budget, or the Security Investment Program.”
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) confirmed in a post on social media that she is co-sponsoring Massie’s bill to withdraw from NATO.
The introduction of Massie’s bill in the U.S. House of Representatives comes after Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) introduced the “Not a Trusted Organization Act,” also known as the “NATO Act,” in the Senate earlier this year.
Pictures of Massie’s bill were shared Tuesday on X, formerly Twitter.