Top Foreign Affairs Republican Senator Jim Risch predicted that the US would not abandon NATO under the Trump administration – and instead pledged to work with the new president to strengthen it.
Sen. Jim Risch, R-Idaho, who heads the powerful Foreign Relations Committee under the new Republican majority, said his first priority is “getting Trump’s team in place.” He said he is “cautiously optimistic” they can get Trump nominee Marco Rubio state secretary, confirmed on opening day.
Speaking to Fox News Digital a day after the meeting with Trump, the chairman said he believes Trump’s national security apparatus will be less frenzied this time around.
“Anyone you talk to will tell you it’s very different this time,” he said. “It will be a lot better.”
He said Trump discussed foreign policy priorities during a meeting with senators on Wednesday but declined to share details.
Risch appears to pay little attention to Trump’s threats to pull the US out of the crisis North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
“I think everyone now recognizes what Russia did, that the original founders of NATO were absolutely right that we had to stand up and come together,” he said. “I don’t think anyone would feel that we should leave NATO.”
“We voted here in Congress on whether or not we should leave NATO,” he continued. “Overwhelmingly, that vote passed.”
RUSSIA MONITORS TRUMP’S ‘DRAMATIC’ COMMENTS ON GREENLAND ACQUISITION
In December 2023, Congress passed legislation as part of the NDAA that prohibited any president from removing the US from NATO without approval by two-thirds of the Senate or an act of Congress. That provision was led by Rubio.
Risch said that after Trump’s first term and Russia’s invasion of Ukrainecountries began to increase their military budgets ‘very slowly’. Canada is not on track to meet the 2% target by 2032.
But now 23 of the 32 NATO countries meet the 2% target, which Republicans now say is not enough.
Risch said he has long planned to get allies to increase spending.
“We will have to do more. So there’s a lot of discussion about what that looks like, and President Trump and I think European countries are going to get in line. That is really necessary.”
Trump said in December that he would “absolutely” do so. leave NATO if his conditions were not met. He has long advocated for other members of the 32-member alliance to increase defense spending.
“If they pay their bills, and if I think they treat us fairly, the answer is absolutely I would stay in NATO,” he said.
But for some, the comments were seen as leverage — a way to force countries lagging behind in defense spending to boost it. Although NATO has long set a goal for its member states to spend 2 percent on defense, and many are still remiss, Trump recently moved the target to 5 percent — more than any country currently spends.
“They can afford it all, but they should be at five percent, not two percent,” Trump said during an appearance at Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday.
He complained that Europe had much more to lose than the US, given its geographical proximity to its adversaries.
President-elect Donald Trump delivers remarks during a campaign rally at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center on October 15, 2024 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
The ruins of the city of Toretsk are located in Donetsk region, Eastern Ukraine on December 19, 2024. (Photo by Ukrinform/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
‘Europe has arrived for a small portion of the money we are sitting on,” Trump said during an appearance at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida Tuesday evening. “There’s something between us called the ocean, right? Why do we get billions and billions of dollars more money than Europe?’
Last year the US spent 3.4% of its GDP on defense. Poland spent the most, at 4.12%.
Risch, who last headed the Foreign Relations Committee from 2019 to 2021, said he plans to work with Trump on returning to a “maximum pressure” campaign on Iran, tightening sanctions to boost economic to put pressure on the regime’s system.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
“They’re going back to maximum pressure,” he said. “I encourage it.”
“The Biden administration pushed a lot of money at them and begged them to come to the table for a deal.”
“Iran is going to have to make some very difficult decisions because I just don’t see that, with the pressure from outside and the pressure from within, they can maintain what they have been doing.”
