Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) warned that a second term with Donald Trump as president could upend the NATO alliance.
“I think if President Trump were to return as president that the nations of the world would say that they really have to rethink their own national security and the extent to which they want to be aligned with us and instead be aligned with someone else,” Romney told Kasie Hunt in an interview for CNN+ released Tuesday.
Asked if Trump permanently damaged NATO, Romney — one of the few prominent Republicans willing to speak against Trump — said the former president’s America-first approach “frightens other members.”
As president, Trump criticized NATO allies for spending too little on defense and cut the U.S. contribution to NATO’s collective budget from 22% to about 16% in 2019, according to CNN. The U.S. spent 3.7% of its GDP on defense in 2020, topping all 29 other countries that belong to the alliance, according to the BBC.
John Bolton, a former national security adviser to Trump, told The Washington Post earlier this month that Russian President Vladimir Putin expected Trump to withdraw from NATO if he had won a second term in office.
“In a second Trump term, I think he may well have withdrawn from NATO,” Bolton said. “And I think Putin was waiting for that.”
President Joe Biden has sought to reaffirm the U.S. commitment to NATO amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine by taking part in a summit in Brussels last week.
Trump, 75, hasn’t declared himself a 2024 presidential candidate, but has repeatedly teased a comeback.