Mitch McConnell Issues Joint Statement with Democrat Defending NATO Amid Trump’s Threats to Withdraw from Alliance

Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call via AP Images

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) released a statement Wednesday supporting U.S. membership in NATO with one of his Democratic colleagues, Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE), amid ongoing threats from President Donald Trump to withdraw from the alliance.

During a phone interview with The Telegraph that was published on Wednesday, Trump reiterated his prior complaints about America’s NATO allies refusing to send warships to help open the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran’s regime had closed after U.S. and Israeli strikes. The closure of the strait has sent oil and gas prices — already elevated since the start of the war — soaring.

Voicing his frustration with the NATO allies, Trump said American withdrawal was already “beyond reconsideration.”

Legally, Trump cannot unilaterally withdraw from NATO, thanks to a law co-sponsored by his Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in 2023 when he was a Senator representing Florida.

Wednesday afternoon, McConnell, who serves as the Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, issued a joint statement with Coons, the committee’s ranking Democrat, regarding NATO. The statement read:

NATO is the most successful military alliance in history. It has underpinned the security of the United States for more than 70 years.

The only time NATO has gone to war has been in response to an attack on America. NATO troops fought and died in Afghanistan and Iraq alongside American forces. The United States must not take this sacrifice – nor our allies’ commitment to make it again – lightly.

Alliance disputes are as old as the alliance itself. Americans are safer when NATO is strong and united. It is in our interest for all allies to tend this unity with care. United States joined NATO in 1949 when the Senate voted to ratify the NATO treaty, and the United States will remain in it. The Senate will continue to support the alliance for the peace and protection it provides America, Europe, and the World.

McConnell is retiring from the Senate and not running for re-election. This is not the first time he has publicly diverged from Trump on a key issue, including criticizing the president’s tariffs and denouncing his ambitions to seize Greenland.

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!