It’s Time to Cut Romania Off
Walking away from an expensive peripheral air base fits neatly with several of the Trump administration’s priorities.
In an unsurprising turn of events, Romania’s electoral commission has banned the right-populist Calin Georgescu from running for president in the country’s upcoming May elections. This is not the first act of electoral tomfoolery to come out of the south-eastern European country. Late last year, Romania’s constitutional court overturned the first round of the presidential elections—which Georgescu had won—arguing that Russia had interfered in the elections by buying TikTok accounts en masse to support Georgescu, who is skeptical of NATO and liberal democracy. The revelation that it had in fact been a centrist establishmentarian party that had bought the TikTok accounts in an attempt to boost Georgescu (who they thought would not win, but would take votes from another right-wing candidate) apparently had no bearing on the case.
But now, the elections will continue without Georgescu, who was a clear favorite at over 40 percent in some polling in the first round alone.
At the time, the Biden administration supported the cancellation, expressing concern over Russia’s supposed interference. But unlike the Biden administration, the Trump administration came into office expressing concern over Romania’s actions. Vice President J.D. Vance lambasted Romania’s election annulment in his address to the Munich Security Conference, and the Trump administration had reportedly been pushing Romanian officials to allow Georgescu to run in May. Elon Musk, Donald Trump’s ally who has taken an interest in European right-populist politics, also commented on the ban, calling it “crazy.”
Speaking up against such blatantly antidemocratic actions is well and good. But the Trump administration should go further by using this opportunity to draw a firm line in the sand by announcing it is pulling troops and support from Mihail Kogalniceanu Air Base.
Most Americans have likely not heard of this base, also called the 57th Air Base. But it has played a major geopolitical role. The base is being expanded and will soon be NATO’s largest air base, with a contingent of 10,000 troops; it is currently already home to over 4,000 American soldiers. Its location, directly on the Black Sea, made it prime real estate for the liberal democrats who wished to expand America’s influence in the 2000s, when the Bush administration invited Romania into NATO.
Pulling American support for the base would not be out of line with the administration’s 21st-century priorities; indeed, it would support and strengthen them. Trump is clearly interested in realigning American foreign policy with its national interest. That means disengaging from Europe, pivoting to Asia, and spending American dollars on American citizens instead of on needless adventures abroad.
The administration’s personnel choices, statements, and actions have made these goals crystal clear. These include the appointment of Elbridge Colby as undersecretary of defense for policy, who has repeatedly urged Europe to do more and called for an Asia pivot, as well as Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s statements on multipolarity and attempts to reopen negotiations with Russia. The administration has even reportedly told European allies that they will no longer conduct military exercises with Europeans past 2025.
But bizarrely, European leadership still seems not quite to believe America will really stop defending them. Their recent series of meetings on defense spending—which Brussels had lauded as ground-changing—produced nothing more than a promise to think harder about the issue in the coming months. One European diplomat, speaking to the media anonymously, said that they will need to persevere “until Trump is dead,” seemingly believing that things will just snap back once the 47th president leaves office.
Leaving the 57th Air Base, however, would make clear that things have changed permanently. Romania still seems to think that America needs that base, which may explain why it felt confident in defying the Trump administration’s wishes on Georgescu. But while the last Republican president, George W. Bush, invited Romania into NATO and believed America’s goal should be to spread democracy as far as possible, this president clearly views the world differently, and with good reason
Take the base’s location, for example. If America were attempting to hold onto unipolarity, a base on the Black Sea—the presence of which is a permanent irritant for Russia—might make some sense. But from the perspective of a foreign policy concerned with the national interest, America does not gain much from a presence there. NATO ally Turkey—which also hosts a major NATO base—already controls the Bosphorus. And the Black Sea, while a major regional body of water, is not exactly a feature the United States must have some control over. It accounts for only about 2.5 percent of international trade. Unlike the western Pacific, which features American possessions like Guam and Hawaii, it is not close to any American land mass whatsoever.
The base is also expensive. Housing thousands of troops and their families is no cheap endeavor. Past expansions have cost a fortune. Romania’s government claims it will cover the cost of the current expansion, estimated to cost over $2.7 billion with work ongoing until 2040, but it is hard to imagine the government does not hope to recoup the cost somehow down the line.
When all is considered, it is genuinely difficult to imagine what benefit the United States gains from the 57th Air Base. The base is important to Romania, of course, which is currently looking across the sea toward a Russia that has expanded its Black Sea coastline by conquering much of southern Ukraine and turned the Sea of Azov into a Russian lake. But its importance to Romania does not make it important to the United States.
Even if the Romanian establishment allows some sort of genuinely right-wing candidate to run—and perhaps, if they’re feeling particularly democratic, to win—it will not change America’s geographic national interests. The Trump administration, with its aid freeze and the Department of Government Efficiency’s recommended spending cuts, is clearly interested in cutting waste and readjusting American foreign policy. It should start by taking a harder look at our military presence in Romania.
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