Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer mocked Secretary of State Marco Rubio over the fact that in 2023 he cosponsored a bill to prevent presidents from leaving NATO with Senate approval, highlighting the contrast with Donald Trump's bashing of the transatlantic alliance.
In a social media post, Schumer guaranteed that the "Senate will not vote to leave NATO and abandon our allies just because Trump is upset they wouldn't go along with his reckless war of choice."
I can promise this: The Senate will not vote to leave NATO and abandon our allies just because Trump is upset they wouldn’t go along with his reckless war of choice.
— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) April 1, 2026
Thank you to @SecRubio for sponsoring the bill in 2023 requiring a two thirds vote of the Senate to make sure… https://t.co/fBbuwwrN8v
He then cited a publication from Rubio in 2023, when he said that "no U.S. President should be able to withdraw from NATO without Senate approval" and thanked his then-colleagues for passing the bill.
"Thank you, Secretary Rubio for sponsoring the bill in 2023 requiring a two thirds vote of the Senate to make sure clueless presidents couldn't act on a whim," Schumer added.
He was not the only Democrat to take aim at Rubio over the matter. Senator Ruben Gallego also recalled on Wednesday that the U.S. "entered NATO by Senate treaty," adding that President Donald Trump has no right to take us out of it."
"You should know you sponsored a bill to block the President from getting us out of NATO," Gallego added.
Rubio said that the U.S. would have to reconsider its relationship with NATO after the war in Iran over the reluctance of several countries to join the Trump administration in its operations.
"We're going to have to re examine the value of NATO & that alliance for our country. Ultimately, that's a decision for the President to make, and he'll have to make it," Rubio added, echoing Trump's frustration with the alliance.
Speaking to The Telegraph on Wednesday, Trump said a withdrawal is "beyond reconsideration."
"I always knew they were a paper tiger, and Putin knows that too, by the way," he added. He went on to say that military aid should be "automatic." "We've been there automatically, including Ukraine. Ukraine wasn't our problem. It was a test, and we were there for them, and we would always have been there for them. They weren't there for us," Trump said.
Elsewhere in the interview, Trump singled out the U.K., suggesting that the Royal Navy was not up to the task. "You don't even have a navy. You're too old and had aircraft carriers that didn't work," he added.
