Republican Rep. Don Bacon again warned President Donald Trump against pulling the U.S. from NATO, saying his presidency "will never recover" from such an attempt.
Speaking to Politico, the lawmaker added that Republicans won't "be able to field a winning team at national level for several cycles to come" if the president indeed takes steps towards removing the U.S. from the transatlantic alliance.
Bacon has repeatedly spoken against the scenario, recently saying the Republican party y would go through "civil war." He recalled last month that other members of NATO have "gone to war on our behalf after 9/11," but noted that Trump "seems to forget that."
"But he's talked down to our NATO allies from day 1. When you treat your allies disrespectfully you can't just expect them to jump when you say jump," Bacon added.
He went on to call on the president to "work on strengthening our alliances," noting that "if you have strong friendships, they're more willing to do this," likely in regards to providing aid in the war with Iran.
Trump, however, has been slamming the alliance for their members' reluctance to join the fray. "They haven't been friends when we needed them," Trump claimed this week. "We've never asked them for much, it's a one-way street."
Several Democrats have already come out to reject leaving NATO. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer claimed in a social media publication that "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."
He then cited a publication from Secretary of State 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 one. 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."
