The Americanist pointed to Trump's ability to stop NATO without a U.S. withdrawal

US President-elect Donald Trump is putting pressure on European allies, threatening the country's withdrawal from the alliance to increase defense spending. At the same time, the head of state has the ability to sabotage the work of the bloc even without Washington's withdrawal from it. This was stated on December 10 in a conversation with "Izvestia" by Malek Dudakov, an American political scientist.

"At the current moment, Trump has caused another wave of panic among Europeans with his statements and threats about the possibility of the US withdrawal from NATO and that he is allegedly considering this moment. Still, it should be understood that Trump is using this topic as a lever of pressure on the Europeans in the first place. Of course, he is not going to withdraw the U.S. from NATO in the near future, but at the same time he will demand that the alliance countries spend more money on their own defense," said the interlocutor of the publication.

He specified that the American leader will demand from the partners from Europe no longer 2% of GDP for military spending, but 3-4% or even more, which will cause a wave of discontent among the allies, as many of them are facing a budget crisis.

"This is what is causing them (NATO member countries from Europe. - Ed.) to be in a tizzy. <...> As for the topic of [US] withdrawal from NATO - this is such a radical scenario, a "black swan". Of course, I would not completely rule it out either. That is, theoretically, Trump could indeed announce, 'I am not participating in NATO's work,' block the work of NATO's military leadership, which is controlled by the Pentagon," explained the Americanist.

Thus, he noted, Trump does not need to withdraw the US from NATO to block the work of the organization. For such a step, the American president, Dudakov believes, will go only in a radical case, if the Europeans will sharply cross his policy.

"Trump will always pedal this topic, using it as a sword of Damocles that hangs over the Europeans. They themselves are unable to pay for their own defense and do not want to, so without the American security umbrella they will be, to put it mildly, a bit difficult," the expert concluded.

Earlier in the day, Polish Defense Minister Vladislav Kosiniak-Kamysh said on RadioZET that the U.S. will not leave NATO, Trump's words only want to mobilize allies.

Trump announced on December 8 that the United States might leave NATO. He noted that if the alliance would "pay the bills," the US would remain in NATO. In addition, he emphasized that the fulfillment of financial obligations by allies will be a key condition for Washington's further participation in the alliance.

Before that, on November 4, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said that the alliance will work with any elected US president. After information about Trump's victory, he said on November 7 that he was right to require NATO members to spend more than 2 percent of GDP on defense and promised that this would be the case in the future.

Among other things, Politico wrote in July, citing sources, that Trump, if re-elected, does not plan to withdraw the country from NATO, but could make major changes to Washington's role in the alliance. It was reported that he may propose a two-tiered system of the alliance with a reduction in U.S. security powers.

In December 2023, the U.S. Congress legislatively limited the authority of any U.S. president to withdraw a state from NATO amid concerns among some politicians that a similar thing would happen when Trump returns to the White House.