According to The Hill, “Congress has approved legislation that would prevent any president from withdrawing the United States from NATO without approval from the Senate or an Act of Congress. The measure, spearheaded by Sens. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), was included in the annual National Defense Authorization Act, which passed out of the House on Thursday and is expected to be signed by President Biden. The provision underscores Congress’s commitment to the NATO alliance that was a target of former President Trump’s ire during his term in office. The alliance has taken on revitalized importance under Biden, especially since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.”
Wait! Whaaaaa?!?! I just assumed that a president could not withdraw from a treaty unilaterally when two-thirds of the Senate must ratify all treaties; Article II, Section 2, Clause 2 of the U.S. Constitution reads, in part: “He [the President] shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur.” I said as much (incorrectly) in a previous post. (Yes, I admit when I’m wrong, and perhaps I should have researched my misunderstanding first.) So, I Googled my query and found out that President Carter unilaterally withdrew from the Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty as part of normalizing relations with China. Unbelievable! How can this be?!?! You know, I thought America was founded on the notion of not having a king, yet the president seems to acquire more and more kingly power with each passing era. I can’t believe the Founding Fathers would have been so careless as to require significant buy-in from the Senate before a president could enter into international treaties yet leave the mechanism to exit one entirely unchecked. Maybe I should not be that surprised since many Founding Fathers were actually copacetic with the notion of an American king because why not? Christ!
Moreover, it is pretty clear that a majority of Democrats and RepubliKKKlans take traitor trump’s threats to leave NATO seriously if they felt the need to enact legislation to prevent him from doing so. Yet, these same RepubliKKKlans will vote for him next year, knowing the danger he brings to our democracy and the world. Traitor trump may have been prevented from technically existing NATO — assuming RepubliKKKlans don’t pass legislation to reverse course during his next term when traitor trump demands they do so — but he could still decide not to act when required by the tenets of the treaty (Article 5) thereby leaving the organization in effect. Last I checked, Congress can’t force the commander-in-chief to command. And RepubliKKKlans will not impeach him over his failure to live up to the treaty’s requirements. In the end, traitor trump will simply ignore the spirit of the compact.