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above Foreign affairs Republican Senator Jim Risch predicted the US would not leave NATO under the Trump administration and vowed to work with the new president to strengthen it.
Sen. Jim Risch, R-Idaho, who heads the powerful Foreign Relations Committee under the new GOP majority, said his number one priority is “getting the Trump team in place.” He said he’s “cautiously optimistic” they can get Marco Rubio, Trump’s running mate secretary of state, confirmed by Inauguration Day.
Speaking to Fox News Digital a day after meeting with Trump, the president said he believes Trump’s national security apparatus will be less frantic this time around.
“Anybody you talk to will tell you it’s very different this time,” he said. “It will be much better.”
He said Trump discussed foreign policy priorities while meeting with senators on Wednesday, but declined to share details.
Risch appears to be paying little attention to Trump’s threats to take out the US North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
“I think everybody recognizes now with what Russia has done, that the original founders of NATO were very right that we have to stand up and come together,” he said. “I don’t think anyone had the idea that we should leave NATO.”
“We had a vote here in Congress on whether or not we should leave NATO,” he continued. “This vote was overwhelmingly passed.”
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In December 2023, Congress passed legislation as part of the NDAA that prohibited any president from withdrawing the US from NATO without the approval of two-thirds of the Senate or an act of Congress. This provision was spearheaded by Rubio.
Risch said this after Trump’s first term and Russia’s invasion of Ukrainenations “very slowly” began to increase their military budgets. Canada is not on track to meet the 2% target until 2032.
But now, 23 of NATO’s 32 states meet the 2 percent goal, which Republicans now say is not enough.
Risch said he had long had plans to work on getting allies to increase his spending.
“We need to do more. So there’s a lot of discussion about what that looks like, and President Trump and I think European countries are going to fall in line. They really need to.”
Trump said in December he would “absolutely” leave NATO if its terms are not met. He has long advocated that other members of the 32-member alliance increase defense spending.
“If they’re paying their bills, and if I think they’re treating us fairly, the answer is absolutely I would stay with NATO,” he said.
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But for some, the comments were seen as leverage: a way to force nations lagging on defense spending to increase it. While NATO has long aimed for its member states to spend 2% on defense, and many remain remiss, Trump recently moved the goalpost to 5%, more than it spends any nation today.
“Everybody can afford it, but they should be at five percent, not two percent,” Trump said during an appearance at Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday.
He complained that Europe had much more to lose than the US, given its geographical proximity to its adversaries.
President-elect Donald Trump delivers a speech during a campaign rally at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center on October 15, 2024 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
The ruins of the city of Toretsk are seen in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine on December 19, 2024. (Photo by Ukrinform/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
“Europe is there for a tiny fraction of the money we have (for),” Trump said during an appearance at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Tuesday afternoon. “We have a thing called the ocean between us, don’t we? Why do we have billions and billions of dollars more money than Europe?”
Last year, the US spent 3.4% of its GDP on defense. Poland spent the most, with 4.12%.
Risch, who last chaired the Foreign Relations Committee from 2019 to 2021, said he plans to work with Trump to return to a campaign of “maximum pressure” on Iran, tightening sanctions to tighten the regime’s economic system .
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“They will go back to maximum pressure,” he said. “I’m cheering it on.”
“The Biden administration took a bunch of cash from them, begged them to come to the table to get a deal.”
“Iran is going to have to make some very difficult decisions, because I don’t see, with the external pressure they’re getting, with the internal pressure they’re getting, that they can sustain what they’ve been doing.”
