If President Donald Trump were to leave NATO, it would split and "destroy" the Republican Party, Rep. Don Bacon told CNN.
The Nebraska Republican said Tuesday that if Trump "broke up NATO on his own, it would be a civil war in the Republican caucus, or the conference. Most of us would find that totally unacceptable, and I'm not alone. There's a large group of us that believe in our alliances and standing up for freedom and pushing back on China and Russia."
Bacon insisted that "we don't want war with these guys, but you got to be strong," stressing that if Trump "went in and somehow destroyed or tore up NATO, it would probably destroy the party for many years. There would be many that will never forgive that."
This follows Trump's criticism of NATO in a Truth Social post that most of the alliance would not help defeat Iran, writing "I am not surprised by their action, however, because I always considered NATO, where we spend hundreds of billions of dollars per year protecting these same countries, to be a one way street — We will protect them, but they will do nothing for us, in particular, in a time of need."
Trump has been outspoken in his push for an international coalition to work with the U.S. to escort ships through the vital Strait of Hormuz.
Bacon, however, pushed back against Trump, telling CNN that "NATO is the best alliance, strongest alliance in history. They've gone to war on our behalf after 9/11. He seems to forget that. But he has talked down to our NATO allies from day one. And when you treat your allies disrespectfully, you can't just expect them to jump, when you say, jump."
He added that in this case NATO was "not coordinated with or talked to about the attacks on Iran. And then to suddenly want them to help out, it's probably a bridge too far for most."
Bacon said that Trump "needs to work on strengthening our alliances. If you have strong friendships, they're more willing to do this. But when you denigrate Denmark and all these other countries, they're going to be more reluctant. And there's a loss of trust with our NATO allies, right now. We have a lot of work to do to repair this loss of trust."
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
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