Republicans quietly rebel against Trump to protect key military allies
Republicans in Congress are "quietly" mounting a rebellion against President Donald Trump's snubbing of NATO allies, according to The Hill, seeking to "take back influence" of the situation by using legislation.In a report published Wednesday morning, The Hill revealed that lawmakers in the Senate are pushing back against Trump's recent decision to abruptly withdraw troops from NATO ally countries in Europe. Those widely derided decisions came amid the backdrop of Trump's longstanding disdain for NATO, having long criticized other members for, in his eyes, not doing enough and relying on U.S. protection. Some of these troop drawdowns also seem to have come in response to certain European leaders hurting Trump's feelings."The Senate Armed Services Committee is moving to curb President Trump’s power to remove troops from Europe, as the White House reportedly plans to draw down its commitment of air support to European countries," The Hill explained. "The annual defense policy bill contains several provisions that would prevent the Pentagon from using funds to reduce the number of American troops in Europe below 76,000 without providing Congress with a justification well beforehand. It comes as Trump has, in recent weeks, moved to cancel deployments of troops headed for Germany and Poland."Sen. Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the committee who has recently come under fire from Trump, told the outlet that Republican members are supportive of these provisions, "because they, too, want to keep supporting NATO with consistent American troops."“All of us recognize the critical nature of NATO in terms of global stability, and many of the things the president is doing is undermining our relationship with NATO and our ability to deter the Russians,” Reed said. “We’re sending a clear signal… we have to maintain that posture to maintain peace.”Sen. Mike Rounds, a South Dakota Republican, stressed how important the matter is among the GOP in Congress, making it clear why they are not afraid of hitting back against Trump on the matter.“It was not a controversial issue,” Rounds said. “It’s very well supported within Congress. We recognize how important it is to have a strong message to our NATO allies that we’re still good partners, and that what President Trump wanted from day one was to have them be even stronger partners and to contribute more to their own defense, and they’re doing that.”
