Bloomberg reports:

President Donald Trump’s threat to exit NATO as retaliation for the bloc’s failure to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz faces a major obstacle — one that comes from his very own Secretary of State, Marco Rubio.

Rubio as a Republican senator from Florida sponsored bipartisan legislation that bars presidents from unilaterally withdrawing the US from the security alliance without the approval of Congress. The measure, co-sponsored with Democratic Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia, was included in the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act, which became law.

Now Trump’s top diplomat, Rubio has gone from being one of NATO’s staunchest defenders on Capitol Hill to amplifying the president’s criticisms of the alliance. Rubio has called for the US to reexamine its relationship with the organization — a bulwark of collective security in the post-World War Two era — after bickering with NATO allies in the wake of the US and Israeli war against Iran.

“I think there’s no doubt, unfortunately, after this conflict is concluded, we are going to have to reexamine that relationship,” Rubio said in an interview on Fox News on Tuesday. “We’re going to have to reexamine the value of NATO and that alliance for our country.”

The State Department, when asked for comment, referred to Rubio’s own comments.

Trump has expressed growing frustration with NATO members as the Iran war he started alongside Israel has dragged on. Key NATO allies balked at allowing the US to access military bases to carry out the initial strikes and have dismissed calls to help vessels safely transit the Strait of Hormuz, a critical energy waterway that has been largely shut since the conflict began.

The US president said he was strongly considering pulling the US out of NATO in an interview with the UK’s Telegraph newspaper, dismissing the alliance as a “paper tiger,” comments that are likely to alarm Washington’s security partners. [Continue reading…]