President Donald Trump met Nato secretary general Mark Rutte on April 8 for what Rutte described as a “very frank, very open” discussion. The pair are reported to have discussed the US-Israeli war against Iran at which, according to White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt, Trump believes that Nato was “tested and they failed”.

The president later posted to his Truth Social platform that “NATO WASN’T THERE WHEN WE NEEDED THEM, AND THEY WON’T BE THERE IF WE NEED THEM AGAIN.”

The US president’s meeting with Rutte came a week after he told Reuters press agency that he was “absolutely” considering withdrawing the US from Nato, after America’s allies refused to join the US-Israeli campaign against Iran. But this is very unlikely to occur for three reasons.

First, in 2023, Congress enacted a law that prohibits the president from “suspending, terminating, denouncing, or withdrawing the United States from the North Atlantic Treaty” — which established the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (Nato) — without the advice and consent of the Senate or an act of Congress. It is extremely unlikely that this will be changed before the midterm elections in November and impossible subsequently if the Democrats end up controlling the House of Representatives.

The second........

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