Under the 1949 NATO treaty, the exit process seems simple. A country submits a formal notice, and one year later, they are out.
But under US domestic law, it is a completely different story. In 2023, legislation was passed to prevent any president from resigning unilaterally.
And to legally withdraw, US President Donald Trump would need a two-thirds supermajority in the Senate or a specific act of Congress.
And although no one has ever fully left the alliance, France came close.
In 1966, President Charles de Gaulle withdrew France from NATO's military command. US troops were ordered to leave French soil, and the alliance had to pack up its headquarters and move from Paris to Brussels.
And it took more than four decades for France to rejoin the military command in 2009.
However, even if Trump cannot easily withdraw, experts warn he could still follow a similar path and hollow out Washington's participation.
He could severely slash funding, withdraw key personnel, or simply refuse to honour the mutual defence pledge.
And if Washington stays in the alliance in name only, calling it a "paper tiger", one could say NATO is already weakened from within, having jeopardised the one thing that matters most: its credibility.
Watch the Euronews video in the player above for the full story.
