When the President first floated the possibility of the US leaving NATO, senior administration officials were unsure if he was serious, the newspaper reported. Since then, Trump -- who has questioned if the longtime alliance is still relevant and has publicly chastised allies over defense spending -- has expressed his desire to leave the alliance several times, senior administration officials told the Times.
Last July, around the time of a contentious NATO summit meeting, Trump told his national security officials he didn't see the point of NATO and thought the alliance was a drain on the US, the Times said.
The Times reported that Trump's repeated desire to withdraw from NATO is raising new concerns among national security officials amid a Washington Post report that Trump concealed details of his meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin and a Times report that the FBI opened a counterintelligence investigation into why Trump was acting in ways that seemed to benefit Russia.
The weakening of NATO has been a longtime goal of Putin's and a withdrawal of the US from NATO would be ideal for the Russian leader.
In response to a request for comment from the Times, a senior administration official pointed to the President's remarks in July when he called the US' commitment to NATO "very strong" and the alliance "very important," but declined to comment further.
During a news conference last July capping his appearance at the NATO summit, Trump was asked specifically if he thought he could pull out of NATO without congressional approval amid reports that he told NATO allies in a closed-door meeting that they needed to raise spending or the United States may go its own way.
He replied: "I think I probably can, but that is unnecessary. They have stepped up today like they have never stepped up before."
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