OAN Staff Blake Wolf
3:49 PM – Wednesday, December 10, 2025
Kentucky Republican Rep. Thomas Massie introduced a new bill this week, titled the “NATO Act,” to remove the United States from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
Massie described NATO as a “Cold War relic” created to counter the Soviet Union and he argued that U.S. involvement has cost taxpayers trillions while risking entanglement in foreign wars, with funds better redirected to domestic defense.
While the proposal aligns with Massie’s long-held “America-first” isolationist views, as he tends to lean more Libertarian, it has also drawn criticism from some Republicans and Democrats who argue that leaving NATO could “potentially weaken U.S. alliances” amid ongoing global tensions.
While announcing the bill, Massie reiterated that the United States would be far better served by redirecting funds currently allocated to NATO to “defend our own country, not socialist countries.”
“NATO is a Cold War relic. We should withdraw from NATO and use that money to defend our own country, not socialist countries,” Massie stated. “NATO was created to counter the Soviet Union, which collapsed over thirty years ago. Since then, U.S. participation has cost taxpayers trillions of dollars and continues to risk U.S. involvement in foreign wars.”
Advertisement“Our Constitution did not authorize permanent foreign entanglements, something our Founding Fathers explicitly warned us against. America should not be the world’s security blanket—especially when wealthy countries refuse to pay for their own defense,” he added.
According to a press release issued by Massie’s office, the act requires the President to formally notify NATO of U.S. withdrawal under Article 13 of the North Atlantic Treaty, which serves as the alliance’s official exit clause.
Massie’s act would also require the federal government to conclude that NATO’s original Cold War purpose “no longer aligns” with U.S. national security interests, as European NATO members have “adequate economic and military capacity to provide for their own defense.” The bill also “prevents use of U.S. taxpayer funds for NATO’s common budgets, including its civil budget, military budget, and the Security Investment Program.”
The announcement also highlighted that Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) introduced companion legislation in the Senate earlier this year.
Additionally, in response to Massie’s announcement, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) stated that she will be co-sponsoring Massie’s bill.
On Wednesday, Massie also issued a separate X post, revealing his proposed amendments to the annual National Defense Authorization Act to “restore freedom, promote peace, cut billions of dollars in foreign aid, and put America First.”
In the post, Massie proclaimed that House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) “and the Rules Committee chose to prevent any amendments from coming to a vote.”
In a screenshot posted by Massie, his amendments explicitly “prohibits assistance” to Ukraine and Israel, “strikes foreign aid funding to Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan, Kurdish forces, and Syrian groups,” as well as foreign aid to the Iraqi Security Forces and the Taiwan Security Cooperation Initiative.
In addition, Massie’s amendments include restrictions on U.S. domestic surveillance, prohibiting the National Security Agency (NSA) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) “from using funds to mandate or request that private entities modify products or services to enable electronic surveillance.”
Notably, the Kentucky representative’s 13th Amendment aims to restore statutory prohibitions on the U.S. State Department and the U.S. Agency for Global Media, “restricting the use of funds for domestic propaganda,” and prohibiting “the use of clandestine or non-official social media accounts, and other such platforms, for these agencies’ information activities, confines dissemination to official platforms, and establishes strict archival, transparency, and labeling requirements for delayed public access to such materials.”
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