Republican Sen. Jim Risch, the top foreign affairs official, predicted that the United States would not abandon NATO even under the Trump administration, pledging instead to work with the new president to strengthen NATO.
Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho), who heads the powerful Foreign Relations Committee under the new Republican majority, said his top priority is “ensuring Trump’s team.” He said he was “cautiously optimistic” that President Trump’s nominee for secretary of state, Marco Rubio, could be confirmed by Inauguration Day.
The day after his meeting with President Trump, he said in an interview on Fox News Digital that he believes Trump’s national security apparatus will be less enthusiastic this time.
“Anyone you talk to will tell you it’s really different this time,” he says. “It’s going to get a lot better.”
He said Trump discussed foreign policy priorities in a meeting with senators on Wednesday, but did not provide details.
Mr. Risch appears to be paying little heed to President Trump’s threat to withdraw the United States from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
“I think everyone now recognizes what Russia has done. The founders of NATO were very right that we have to stand up and come together,” he said. “I don’t think anyone thinks we should leave NATO.”
“We voted here in Congress on whether or not we should leave NATO,” he continued. “Overwhelmingly, that vote passed.”
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In December 2023, Congress passed a bill as part of the NDAA that would prohibit the president from removing the United States from NATO without two-thirds approval of the Senate or an act of Congress. Rubio led this provision.
Risch said that after President Trump’s first term and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, countries began increasing their military budgets “very slowly.” Canada is not expected to reach its 2% target until 2032.
But with 23 of 32 NATO members now meeting the 2% target, Republicans say it’s not enough.
Risch said he had long planned to push allies to increase spending.
“We’re going to have to do more. So there’s a lot of discussion going on about what that will look like, but President Trump and I think European countries will be in lockstep. They really needs to do that.”
President Trump said in December that he would “absolutely” leave NATO if conditions were not met. He has long advocated for other members of the 32-nation alliance to increase defense spending.
“If they’re paying their bills and I think they’re treating us fairly, then the answer absolutely remains with NATO,” he said.
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But for some, the comment was seen as a way to get a country that is lagging behind in defense spending to increase spending. NATO has long had a goal for member states to spend 2% on defense, and while many countries remain negligent, President Trump recently raised the goal to 5%. This is more than any country currently spends.
“Everyone can afford it, but it should be 5%, not 2%,” President Trump said in a speech at Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday.
He complained that Europe has much more to lose than the United States, given its geographic proximity to its enemies.
President-elect Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center on October 15, 2024 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
Ruins of the city of Tretsk in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, December 19, 2024. (Photo: Ukrinform/NurPhoto, Getty Images)
“The money Europe gets is only a fraction of the money we get. [for]” President Trump said during an appearance at the Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida late Tuesday. “There is something called an ocean between us, right? Why do we need billions of dollars more than Europe?”
Last year, the United States spent 3.4% of GDP on defense. Poland spent the most at 4.12%.
Rishu, who last served as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee from 2019 to 2021, returned to his “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran, with President Trump seeking to tighten sanctions to strain the regime’s economic system. He said he intends to cooperate with the
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“They’re going to go back to maximum pressure,” he said. “I encourage that.”
“The Biden administration confronted them with large sums of cash and begged them to come to the deal table.”
“Iran is going to have to make some very difficult decisions because I don’t think the external and internal pressures that they’re under will allow them to maintain what they’ve been doing.”
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