Trump suggested NATO withdrawal multiple times in 2018

[MBS]

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/nyt-trump-suggested-us-withdrawl-from-nato-several-times-2018

. . .According to current and former administration officials who spoke to the Times, Trump vocalized during the NATO summit last summer that he didn’t understand the point of the alliance and characterized it as a financial burden on the U.S. At the time, Trump’s national security team clambered to keep Trump’s private wishes quiet to avoid uproar.

The report of Trump’s fickle relationship with the military alliance takes on heightened importance given reports that the FBI investigated Trump in 2016 over suspicions that he was working for the Kremlin and that he tried to keep the contents of his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin private from aides. The weakening of NATO has long been a goal of the Kremlin.

The original NYT article. This is a long, in-depth article, which is worth reading in full. But here are a few excerpts.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/14/us/politics/nato-president-trump.html

WASHINGTON — There are few things that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia desires more than the weakening of NATO, the military alliance among the United States, Europe and Canada that has deterred Soviet and Russian aggression for 70 years. Last year, President Trump suggested a move tantamount to destroying NATO: the withdrawal of the United States.
Senior administration officials told The New York Times that several times over the course of 2018, Mr. Trump privately said he wanted to withdraw from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Current and former officials who support the alliance said they feared Mr. Trump could return to his threat as allied military spending continued to lag behind the goals the president had set. In the days around a tumultuous NATO summit meeting last summer, they said, Mr. Trump told his top national security officials that he did not see the point of the military alliance, which he presented as a drain on the United States. At the time, Mr. Trump’s national security team, including Jim Mattis, then the defense secretary, and John R. Bolton, the national security adviser, scrambled to keep American strategy on track without mention of a withdrawal that would drastically reduce Washington’s influence in Europe and could embolden Russia for decades. Now, the president’s repeatedly stated desire to withdraw from NATO is raising new worries among national security officials amid growing concern about Mr. Trump’s efforts to keep his meetings with Mr. Putin secret from even his own aides, and an F.B.I. investigation into the administration’s Russia ties.

A move to withdraw from the alliance, in place since 1949, “would be one of the most damaging things that any president could do to U.S. interests,” said Michèle A. Flournoy, an under secretary of defense under President Barack Obama.“It would destroy 70-plus years of painstaking work across multiple administrations, Republican and Democratic, to create perhaps the most powerful and advantageous alliance in history,” Ms. Flournoy said in an interview. “And it would be the wildest success that Vladimir Putin could dream of.” Retired Adm. James G. Stavridis, the former supreme allied commander of NATO, said an American withdrawal from the alliance would be “a geopolitical mistake of epic proportion.” “Even discussing the idea of leaving NATO — let alone actually doing so — would be the gift of the century for Putin,” Admiral Stavridis said.
Senior Trump administration officials discussed the internal and highly sensitive efforts to preserve the military alliance on condition of anonymity.

American national security officials believe that Russia has largely focused on undermining solidarity between the United States and Europe after it annexed Crimea in 2014. Its goal was to upend NATO, which Moscow views as a threat. An American withdrawal from the alliance would accomplish all that Mr. Putin has been trying to put into motion, the officials said — essentially, doing the Russian leader’s hardest and most critical work for him. When Mr. Trump first raised the possibility of leaving the alliance, senior administration officials were unsure if he was serious. He has returned to the idea several times, officials said increasing their worries. Mr. Trump’s dislike of alliances abroad and American commitments to international organizations is no secret. The president has repeatedly and publicly challenged or withdrawn from a number of military and economic partnerships, from the Paris climate accord to an Asia-Pacific trade pact. He has questioned the United States’ military alliance with South Korea and Japan, and he has announced a withdrawal of American troops from Syria without first consulting allies in the American-led coalition to defeat the Islamic State.

. . During the middle of a speech by Ms. Merkel, Mr. Trump again broke protocol by getting up and leaving, sending ripples of shock across the room, according to American and European officials who were there. . . In the end, the NATO leaders publicly papered over their differences to present a unified front. But both European leaders and American officials emerged from the two days in Brussels shaken and worried that Mr. Trump would renew his threat to withdraw from the alliance. Mr. Trump’s skepticism of NATO appears to be a core belief, administration officials said, akin to his desire to expropriate Iraq’s oil. While officials have explained multiple times why the United States cannot take Iraq’s oil, Mr. Trump returns to the issue every few months. Similarly, just when officials think the issue of NATO membership has been settled, Mr. Trump again brings up his desire to leave the alliance.

[Farmer-Rick]

1. But the NATO treaty is law

So he would be breaking the law by pulling out of the ratified treaty. It's such an ingrained constitutional process that even Wikipedia got it right.

"The President may form and negotiate, but the treaty must be advised and consented to by a two-thirds vote in the Senate. Only after the Senate approves the treaty can the President ratify it. Once it is ratified, it becomes binding on all the states under the Supremacy Clause."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ratification

[MBS]

2. thanks for the reassurance

The NYT article did note that any attempt by Trump to withdraw from NATO would face stiff resistance in the Senate. But the statement by Stavridis (quoted also above) also resonated with me:

“Even discussing the idea of leaving NATO — let alone actually doing so — would be the gift of the century for Putin,” Admiral Stavridis said.

[Farmer-Rick]

3. Yeah, and breaking the law is second nature to Traitor Trump

He'll break it then will the Senate or the Supremes hold him accountable?

He's been getting away with breaking the law left and right so far.

[MBS]

4. that too. n/t

[LakeSuperiorView]

5. He has no clue what it is. He can't or won't read. Just meaningless letters to him.

He does understand that there are costs associated with it, and thinks that we are paying too much. He then says we need to increase military spending, oblivious to the connection.

[MBS]

6. "Oblivious to the connection" -YES.

And as always.

[Blue_Tires]

7. Somewhere down in Rio,

Glenn Greenwald is furiously beating off to the fantasy of a hard NATO exit