Republican senators McConnell and Tillis break with Trump on Nato withdrawal

A second Republican senator spoke out in defense of Nato on Thursday, joining Mitch McConnell and the Democrats, after Donald Trump said that he was “absolutely” considering withdrawing from the alliance after it refused to take part in the joint assault with Israel against Iran.

“Nato stood by America when we were under attack and came to our aid after the September 11th attacks. Their soldiers fought and died alongside our troops in Afghanistan,” said Thom Tillis, a Republican, and Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat, who co-chair the Senate Nato observer group.

“Any president that contemplates attempting to withdraw from Nato is not only fulfilling Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping’s greatest dreams but would be undermining America’s own national security interests.”

Related: Can Trump pull the US out of Nato – and why is he considering it?

On Wednesday, McConnell, the former Senate Republican leader, along with Chris Coons, a Democrat, said in a joint statement: “Nato troops fought and died in Afghanistan and Iraq alongside American forces. The United States must not take this sacrifice – nor our allies’ commitment to make it again – lightly.

“Alliance disputes are as old as the alliance itself. Americans are safer when Nato is strong and united. It is in our interest for all allies to tend this unity with care.” McConnell and Coons are the top Republican and Democrat, respectively, on the Senate defense appropriations subcommittee.

Trump has been a longtime critic of the transatlantic alliance, and did not consult with it before collaborating with Israel in the campaign against Iran. He also did not invoke article 5 of its treaty, which triggers collective defense from member states in response to “an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America”.

On Wednesday, Trump told Reuters in an interview that he is “absolutely without question” considering withdrawing from Nato. In a separate interview with the Telegraph, the president said he had never been “swayed by Nato” and the matter of withdrawal was “beyond reconsideration”.

Leaving the alliance would be politically difficult. Under a 2024 law, a US president cannot withdraw from Nato without the support of a two-thirds majority in the Senate, or an act of Congress.

Trump’s attacks on the alliance have provoked a rare split with his Republican allies, though those speaking out the loudest are in their final months in office. Tillis has opted not to run for re-election in November after breaking with Trump last year on his signature domestic policy bill, while McConnell is retiring after serving since 1985.