The Republican congressman presented this morning in the United States House of Representatives a bill that would withdraw the United States from the , which he described as “a relic of the Cold War” currently used to defend “socialist countries.”
“NATO is a relic of the Cold War. We should withdraw from NATO and use that money to defend our own country, not socialist countries,” Massie declared, according to the statement published regarding the bill.
The Republican has lamented that the Atlantic Alliance was created to counter the Soviet Union and, since its disintegration more than three decades ago, “it has cost taxpayers trillions of dollars and continues to put the United States’ participation in foreign wars at risk.”
In this sense, he has defended that the US Constitution “does not authorize permanent involvement abroad” and that “the United States should not be the world’s lifeline, especially when rich countries refuse to pay for their own defense.”
Likewise, the text of the proposal criticizes that “despite its waning relevance and previous guarantees to the contrary, NATO initiated one”, until reaching the current land border, composed of Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Poland.
In line, he lamented that, while Moscow has insisted on denouncing the expansion of the alliance and “NATO members have refused to rule out further” enlargement, “the invasion of Ukraine (…) demonstrates Russia’s willingness” to “use military action in response to perceived threats to its security.”
“The main interest of the United States in Europe is to prevent the emergence of a regional hegemon,” argued Massie, who has dismissed the prospects of such a power appearing even if Washington does not intervene, since “the combined military and economic capacity of the European members of NATO exceeds that of the Russian Federation.”
Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., talks to reporters outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Nov. 18, 2025.
Goodbye or not goodbye?
US President Donald Trump has repeatedly expressed his willingness to reevaluate or limit his country’s participation in NATO, especially if European allies do not increase their defense spending, something they committed to at last summer’s allied summit in The Hague.
But the complete withdrawal is not a fait accompli and faces legal obstacles. A bipartisan law, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024, specifically prohibits a US president from unilaterally withdrawing from NATO without the approval of a two-thirds majority of the Senate or an act of Congress.
However, some legal experts warn that Trump could try to circumvent this law, which could trigger a legal battle.
