Republican Representative Thomas Massie is pushing a bill to withdraw the United States from NATO

Kentucky Republican Rep. Thomas Massie introduced a bill Wednesday that would withdraw the United States from its alliance with NATO, which he described as "a Cold War relic." In a statement, Massie commented: "We should withdraw from NATO and use that money to defend our own country, not socialist countries. NATO was created to counter the Soviet Union, which collapsed more than thirty years ago. Since then, U.S. participation has cost taxpayers trillions of dollars and continues to risk U.S. involvement in foreign wars."

While Florida Republican Representative Anna Paulina Luna said she would cosponsor the initiative, while conservative Senator Mike Lee introduced parallel legislation in the SenateMassie's comments contrast with many of his Republican colleagues, who in recent months have pushed for greater U.S. participation in NATO due to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine over the invasion of Russia in 2022.

The most significant case took place in November, when Iowa Republican Senator Joni Ernst introduced, along with her Democratic counterpart Michael Benet, a bill in which they called on defense officials to develop an integrated air defense system along with other NATO member nations to ensure a robust response to upcoming incursions by Russia. Despite such efforts, Massie asserted that the "United States should not be the world's security blanket, especially when rich countries refuse to pay for their own defense."