QUESTION: So, if the Democrats take the House and possibly the Senate, and if I remember correctly, Biden didn’t sign that act saying the president cannot withdraw from NATO? Does that mean the Democrats can force us into World War III to protect Zelensky?
HJ
ANSWER: Yes and No. In 2024, Biden signed Section 1250A into law, which prohibits the President from unilaterally withdrawing the United States from NATO. The 2024 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) included it, and it is codified at 22 U.S.C. § 1928f.
The law explicitly prohibits the President from suspending, terminating, denouncing, or withdrawing from the North Atlantic Treaty except by one of two methods:
Advice and consent of the Senate, with two-thirds of Senators present concurring, or
An Act of Congress.
It also bars the use of any federal funds to support a NATO withdrawal without meeting those requirements. This was supported by the Neocon then Sen. Marco Rubio (now Secretary of State) and Sen. Tim Kaine.
The law sets up a potential legal clash. The executive branch’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) issued a 2020 opinion arguing that treaty withdrawal is an exclusive presidential power that Congress cannot constitutionally constrain. If a President attempted to withdraw without congressional approval, the matter would end up in court unless you had a Democrat as president.
However, the practical effect is that any President would need at least 14 Democratic Senators (assuming all Republicans voted to withdraw) to reach the two-thirds threshold required by the law. Section 1928f is titled “Limitation on withdrawal from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.” Its sole purpose is to prevent the President from unilaterally withdrawing the United States from NATO without congressional approval.
While I believe it is unconstitutional, the real tension would be the Democrats would shut down all funds until he sent Americans to due for the ethnic cleansing of Zelensky. Anyway you slice this, we are in for a chaotic 2 years into 2028 and the American people, and the world, will wonder if the United States is even salvageable.
