Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) is adding his voice to Elon Musk’s in a call for the U.S. to leave the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) as soon as possible.
Lee has long been a critic of NATO and suggests that the alliance is a “great deal for Europe” but a “raw deal for the America.”
Over the weekend, Lee shared a number of posts on the social media platform X, indicating that now is a good time for the U.S. to exit the organization that is more than 70% funded by American taxpayers.
President Trump has consistently pushed European nations to pay their fair share to support NATO and has argued that the U.S. is carrying too heavy a burden to keep the alliance safe.
Shortly after his inauguration, Trump pushed for NATO members to up their defense spending from 2% to 5% of GDP because the U.S. was protecting the alliance but that NATO members “were not protecting us” in return.
When European Union (EU) members met over the weekend, after the Oval Office spat on Friday between Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, President Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance, Sen. Lee shared a video clip of the EU leaders meeting and warned that it was, “Time to get America out of NATO–now!”
Zelensky has argued that Ukraine should be allowed to join NATO as a security guarantee against Russia.
The alliance currently has 32 members, including 30 European nations and the United States and Canada.
The Ukrainian president has been pushing hard for NATO membership lately, likely under the belief that any attack by Russia on any member of NATO would result in a call for a unified response by other members of the alliance under Article 5 of the treaty which treats an attack against one member as an attack against all.
European leaders have expressed a willingness to come to Ukraine’s aid without the help of the U.S., if necessary, but there is also the likely expectation that the U.S. would be bound to intervene if another NATO member were attacked by Russia.
If a trap is, in fact, being laid for the U.S. by members of the E.U. then this may be the time to begin moving toward an exit from NATO.