What will happen if US pulls out of NATO - Trump says he's 'strongly considering' doing it

With the war in Iran still dividing the world’s allies and enemies in a big way, Donald Trump has now threatened to leave NATO.

But what would happen if he actually followed through on his threat?

Donald Trump is no stranger to threatening other countries

The US President has been flinging out threats left, right and center in recent times, from allies like Denmark over Greenland to enemies like Iran, who he actually followed through on his threats against.

He also captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, once again proving that sometimes he really is as good as his word.

But now he’s threatened the allies that are closest to him, the countries in NATO - the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

NATO was established in 1949 after the signing of the treaty and is made up of 32 nations, 30 from Europe and two from North America.

All the big hitters are there, the US, France, the UK, Germany - everyone pretty much.

Notably, Russia isn’t there, but you can probably guess why that is.

Ukraine isn’t there either, which is an issue for another day.

However, in recent times, Trump has been issuing declarations that the US might leave NATO because of the other countries’ reluctance to join him in the war with Iran.

Many nations have distanced themselves from the war, both from within the bloc and elsewhere, and Trump is not happy about that, it would be fair to say.

He’s said that the discussion about leaving NATO is ‘beyond reconsideration’ and confirmed that he was allegedly never actually that keen on it anyway.

In an interview with The Telegraph, the 79-year-old POTUS said: "I was never swayed by NATO. I always knew they were a paper tiger, and Putin knows that too, by the way."

Secretary of State Marco Rubio also confirmed that the US will ‘re-examine’ its relationship with the organization.

"If now we have reached a point where the NATO alliance means we can’t use those bases to defend America’s interests, then NATO is a one-way street,” he told FOX News.

"If NATO is simply about us having troops in Europe to defend Europe, but when we need them to allow us to use their military bases, their answer is no – then why are we in NATO?”

What would happen if Trump decided to leave NATO?

If Trump decided to pull the plug on the USA’s involvement with the political and military group, they’d be shooting themselves in the foot somewhat.

The NATO website states that the purpose of the group is to ‘safeguard the freedom and security of its member countries and their one billion people’.

Members are therefore ‘committed to protecting each other from any threat’.

So, the US loses that to start with.

It also loses access to other countries’ military bases around the world, which would be a problem.

According to one report in Modern Diplomacy, this could have a massively detrimental effect on the US Navy, if they were to lose access to friendly ports.

The article adds: "Our bombers couldn’t reach targets halfway around the world without support from allies.”

Sure, the US could survive just fine alone - after all, Russia claims that it does - but it would undoubtedly be stronger as part of the union of countries.

Can Donald Trump decide to leave NATO?

As for whether Trump has the power to take this decision, it’s definitely true that he could put the question out there.

However, in 2023 a law was passed that stated that the US would need congressional approval to withdraw from NATO.

But, these things can and do happen, as the UK proved in 2016 with the Brexit vote to leave the European Union.

As for NATO, if the US decided to leave, it would still be a bloc with 31 members including the big powers of Europe and Canada, so while they wouldn’t be thrilled with the USA leaving, it would be able to continue.

Featured image credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty