Former U.S. president and current Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump addresses reporters at Mar-a-Lago in West Palm Beach, Florida, on February 16, 2024.
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“He's going to take us out of NATO,” Clinton told attendees during a lunchtime session.
President Trump stoked new concerns over America's commitment to NATO over the weekend, saying he would “encourage” Russia to attack member states that don't meet spending targets. He has long criticized the alliance for failing to ensure its members meet their obligations to contribute 2% of their gross domestic product to national defense.
Amid this rhetoric, the U.S. Congress passed a bill in December aimed at preventing the U.S. president from unilaterally withdrawing from the alliance without Congressional approval.
Republican Sen. Jim Risch, ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, dismissed talk of the U.S. leaving NATO on Saturday, saying, “We have answered that question.”
“We would need a two-thirds vote in the U.S. Senate to leave, and that will never happen,” he told CNBC in Munich.
But Clinton said Trump may actually refuse to fund the alliance. “The United States will be there in name only,” she said.
With the prospect of a second term for President Donald Trump looming large and the U.S. House of Representatives facing a controversial aid package for Ukraine, the annual defense summit to be held in Germany this year will focus on continuing discussions between the U.S. and Europe. Concerns about military cooperation dominate the discussion.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte on Saturday noted that there was constant “moaning and whining” at events about the future of NATO under the Trump administration.
“Stop moaning and whining and nagging about Trump,” he said.
He echoed many European voices, including German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, who said Europe needed to stand on its own in the face of a more uncertain future with its closest diplomatic allies. I was alone.
“No matter what happens in the United States, we have to protect ourselves,” Frederiksen said.
Indeed, Germany's defense minister said the country's commitment to spend 2% of GDP on defense is just the beginning, noting that the threshold could rise to 3.5% if necessary.
But NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg struck a more optimistic tone about transatlantic cooperation, saying the US would remain a “resolute and committed NATO ally” no matter what happens in the next election. He said he believed that.
“Regardless of the outcome of the U.S. presidential election in November, we expect the United States to remain a resolute and committed NATO ally,” he told CNBC's Sylvia Amaro.
He added: “It is in America's security interests to have a strong NATO.”
Stoltenberg acknowledged that Trump is unhappy with member spending, but said, “That's changing now.” NATO announced Wednesday that 18 of the alliance's 31 members will meet their 2% spending target this year.
NATO members first committed to minimum spending targets in 2006, but by 2014 only three had met that benchmark.
The alliance will celebrate its 75th anniversary this year with its annual summit in Washington in July.
Sen. Risch said he hopes all members will be committed to achieving the goal by that point.
“We're always interested in the now, not now when it's going to happen in a few years,” he said. “It's good for relationships. Everyone keeps their commitments.”
