Trump rival wants US out of NATO – Politico — RT World News

Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy has indicated that he intends to withdraw the United States from NATO if he wins the 2024 election, Politico reported on Friday, citing sources.

According to three people familiar with Ramaswamy's thinking, he made the remarks in private while speaking to supporters. Publicly, the Indian-American businessman described Washington's possible withdrawal from the military alliance – in which it plays a leading role – as a threat. “A reasonable idea.”

Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for Ramaswamy's campaign, would neither confirm nor deny the plans. However, she told POLITICO that her boss did “Serious concerns that most NATO allies will fail to meet their military investment commitments.”

According to McLaughlin, the presidential candidate “He also believes that NATO's post-Cold War expansion has unnecessarily increased the risk of a major conflict with Russia.”

Ramaswamy does not enjoy a high level of support even among members of his own party, as he lags behind other Republican presidential candidates – most notably Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and former US President Donald Trump, who is widely considered the front-runner. However, Politico noted that Ramaswamy would likely join an administration led by Trump, who has cast himself as a NATO skeptic, if he returned to the White House.

Numerous media reports indicated that Trump threatened to withdraw his country from the US-led military bloc during his first term in 2018 while urging Washington's allies to increase their defense spending. The GOP front-runner's current campaign platform is more ambiguous on this issue, stating: “We have to complete the process of… a fundamental reassessment of NATO's purpose and NATO's mission.”

Amid concerns in Europe that Trump might try to abandon Washington's NATO commitments, US President Joe Biden last month signed an $886 billion Pentagon funding bill that will, among other things, require congressional approval for the US president to leave the alliance.

Questions have increased about the fate of NATO as the alliance enters into a confrontation with Russia over the conflict in Ukraine, with members providing massive military aid to Kiev, a campaign that Moscow has repeatedly denounced. For decades, Russia has viewed the alliance's expansion towards its borders as an existential threat, with Russian President Vladimir Putin saying that Ukraine's desire to join the bloc was one of the main reasons for the current conflict.