How Much Trouble is NATO Really In? with Scott R. Anderson
The Lawfare Podcast
The Lawfare Institute
4.7 • 6.4K Ratings
🗓️ 26 February 2024
⏱️ 61 minutes
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Summary
At a South Carolina campaign rally on Feb. 10, former President Donald Trump told a crowd of supporters that while he was president he told “one of the presidents of a big country” in the NATO alliance that he would not protect that country from a Russian invasion if that country didn’t pay. Trump then said, “In fact, I would encourage them to do whatever the hell they want. You got to pay. You got to pay your bills.”
Lawfare Managing Editor Tyler McBrien sat down with Lawfare Senior Editor Scott R. Anderson to talk through Trump’s NATO comments, why they’re rattling European allies, whether a U.S. president could destroy the alliance, and how Congress might stop it. They also talked about why everyone here at Lawfare calls Section 1250A of the recent National Defense Authorization Act the “Anderson Saves NATO” provision.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The following podcast contains advertising. |
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| 0:08.0 | become a material supporter of Lawfair at Patreon.com slash Lawfair. That's Patreon.com |
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| 0:30.0 | It is very unlikely that Congress could pass a law and force the United States to use military force in a way the President did not want to do. |
| 0:42.0 | That wasn't the case in the Articles of |
| 0:43.3 | Confederation. That was actually the way it was done. You would appoint commanders and |
| 0:46.3 | chief multiple, right? The legislature would. But that's not the option. We moved |
| 0:51.2 | away from that as we move towards the modern Constitution, the actual |
| 0:55.4 | US Constitution. |
| 0:56.9 | And that has left us in a situation where Congress has its own war powers, its own authority |
| 1:01.7 | over the use of military force, but they're much better suited to restraining it than compelling it. |
| 1:06.2 | So the Congress can cut off authorization, can cut off funding, can do a lot of other things to restrict how the president may choose to act, but is not very well suited to compelling the president act. |
| 1:15.7 | And that's a real problem for NATO or any treaty alliance. |
| 1:18.1 | And the reason why Trump's statements are real concerning and are going to keep being concerning for Europe even if 1250a stays on the books |
| 1:26.4 | and gets expanded in the ways I just mentioned about litigation authorization. |
| 1:30.2 | I'm Tyler McBryan, managing editor of Law Fair, and this is the Law Fair |
| 1:35.1 | podcast, February 26, 2024. At a South Carolina campaign rally on February 10th |
| 1:41.0 | former President Donald Trump told a crowd of supporters that while he was |
| 1:44.4 | president he told, quote, one of the presidents of a big country in the NATO alliance that he would not |
| 1:49.2 | protect that country from a Russian invasion if that country didn't pay. |
| 1:53.0 | Trump then said, quote, |
... |
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