'I agree': Elon Musk backs US withdrawal from UN and NATO

Elon Musk, the billionaire appointed by President Donald Trump to downsize the US government

Elon Musk, the billionaire appointed by President Donald Trump to downsize the US government, has once again publicly supported the withdrawal of the United States from both the North Atlantic Treaty Organization(NATO) and the United Nations(UN).

Responding to a social media post advocating such a move on Sunday, Musk, who leads the US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), commented, “I agree.”

I agree https://t.co/ZhjBXCTQfp

Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 2, 2025

In March 2024, Elon Musk wrote on X, "I always wondered why NATO continued to exist even though its nemesis and reason to exist, The Warsaw Pact, had dissolved."

NATO needs an overhaul Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 12, 2025

True.I always wondered why NATO continued to exist even though its nemesis and reason to exist, The Warsaw Pact, had dissolved. Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 2, 2024

"NATO needs an overhaul," Musk posted to X, formerly Twitter, earlier this year, in response to Republican Senator Mike Lee writing: "The Cold War is over. NATO's anachronistic."

Earlier, US President Donald Trump said  he was not sure the United States should be spending anything on NATO, telling reporters the U.S. was protecting NATO members, but they were “not protecting us.”

Trump repeated demands that other members of the transatlantic alliance spend 5% of their gross domestic product (GDP) on defense – a huge increase from the current 2% goal and a level that no NATO country, including the United States, currently reaches.

“I’m not sure we should be spending anything, but we should certainly be helping them,” Trump told reporters after signing an executive order in the Oval Office. “We’re protecting them. They’re not protecting us.”

“They should up their 2% to 5%,” he said, repeating his remarks earlier to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Washington finances 15.8% of the 32-member military alliance’s yearly expenditure of around $3.5 billion. That is the joint-largest share, alongside Germany’s, according to a NATO breakdown for 2024.

*With Agency Inputs