A leading national security adviser to Donald Trump said Tuesday that he would push for changes to NATO if the former president returns to power that could result in some member nations losing protection against an outside attack.

Keith Kellogg, a retired lieutenant general and onetime chief of staff of the former president's National Security Council, said in an interview that if a member of the 31-country alliance failed to spend at least 2% of its gross domestic product on defense, as agreed, he would support removing that nation's Article 5 protections under the North Atlantic Treaty.

Article 5 states that an attack against one member of the Europe-based alliance will be considered an attack against all, and members of the alliance must respond appropriately. Without those protections, a member country would not be guaranteed other NATO members would come to its aid.