Conservative columnist George Will ripped into President Donald Trump’s “specious” argument for giving himself the power to unilaterally withdraw from treaties even when Congress disapproves of doing so.
Writing for The Washington Post, Will fumed that “The ‘unitary executive theory‘ is an idea percolating in America’s political and judicial debates. Its radicalism includes insistence that the president may unilaterally withdraw the nation from treaties to which the Senate has consented. Withdrawal from NATO has become topical because of the current president’s long-standing animosity toward the alliance. This has intensified because some NATO members have been uncooperative concerning the Iran war, about which they were barely consulted.”
If Trump were to withdraw from NATO, he would be directly defying Congress’ decision to prohibit the president from unilaterally doing this, which passed in 2023. “Consider the ramifications of this additional marginalization of Congress: postulating an inherent presidential power to withdraw from even the most consequential treaties,” he wrote.
The fact is, Will continued, “Presidents may unilaterally extend recognition to foreign governments, thereby establishing relations. Treaties, however, establish U.S. obligations. The president’s primacy in foreign policy does not entail the power to exclude Congress from involvement in implementing or renouncing these obligations.”
John Yoo, the infamous legal academic behind the George W. Bush torture memo, has also been a huge proponent of unitary executive theory — and his logic for applying it to treaties doesn’t make any sense, Will wrote.
“Yoo says leaving NATO ‘would certainly be a foreign-policy disaster.’ But his theory insists that the Constitution relegates Congress to the role of spectator at the disaster,” he concluded. “When a theory drags its adherents into such an intellectual cul-de-sac, the theory should be relegated to the ranks of ideas that need to be reconsidered.”
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