'Trump-proof the alliance': NATO countries now 'bracing for the possibility of big change'

10 July 2024

Member nations of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) are currently convening for a major summit in Washington, D.C. and are reportedly discussing ways to keep the alliance intact in the event former President Donald Trump wins the November election.

That's according to CNN reporter Jim Sciutto, who said that NATO countries have been preparing for a worst-case scenario in the event that Trump — who has a pattern of favorable treatment toward Russian President Vladimir Putin — moves to weaken the alliance in the event voters send him back to the White House for a second term this fall. Sciutto noted Wednesday that the topic of "Trump-proofing" Ukraine aid over the next several years has been front and center at this year's NATO summit.

"It's a lot of money, with the intention being it could last longer than just the several months until the election, perhaps even after a — potentially — Donald Trump comes into office," Sciutto said of Congress' most recent foreign aid package to Ukraine. "But other steps [have been discussed] as well: The U.S. Congress acting so that a U.S. president could not make a unilateral decision to leave the the alliance and other language, for instance, in the communiques both at this summit, but also at previous summits that put into writing NATO's commitment, at least to the idea of Ukraine's membership long term."

"So all these attempts at what's been described at me in the simplest terms as 'Trump-proofing' the alliance in these many steps, but they know that you cannot proof against the commander-in-chief of the largest member of NATO, with the largest military in the world, the largest budget, et cetera," Sciutto continued. "Whoever is elected has enormous power to determine the role of this alliance going forward in Ukraine and elsewhere so that they can Trump-proof to a degree but they can't Trump-proof everything."

Scitto's description of how the NATO summit is handling the possibility of a second Trump administration is similar to what the United States' European allies have said earlier this year about the former president potentially returning to power. In April, several European diplomats told CNN that they fear Trump's "random bursts of rage" affecting international alliances if Trump is voted back into the White House.

""It’s more the general, rather than the specific: something may go very, very wrong just because some decision is made – basically shooting from the hip, without enough information, without appreciation of the possible second or third order effects," an unnamed diplomat told the network.

Sciutto added that foreign leaders aren't just worried about how a second Trump term may affect NATO, but other military alliances around the world if he wins a second term.

"I've spoken to former senior officials in trump's own administration, from the previous administration, who said that under trump, he might very well pull out of the alliance as well as at least reduce America's commitment to other defense alliances — not just in Europe, but with South Korea, Japan, and elsewhere," he said. "They really are bracing for the possibility of big change."

Trump has indicated in posts to his Truth Social platform that the U.S. relationship with Russia would change if he was elected again. In May, Trump suggested that Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who has been imprisoned in Russia since March of 2023, would be immediately freed if he won in November. It's possible Putin would leverage Gershkovich's freedom with the U.S. conceding support for Ukraine. And John Bolton, who served as Trump's National Security Adviser, has said Trump would likely pull the U.S. out of NATO if he won.

Watch Sciutto's segment below, or by clicking this link.

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