President Trump privately said multiple times last year that he wanted to withdraw the United States from NATO, according to a report.

Trump raised the possibility last summer around the time of a NATO meeting in Brussels where he harangued members about paying their fair share for defense.

He told his national security advisers that he believed the 70-year-old alliance was draining the United States, the New York Times reported late Monday.

His national security team at the time, Defense Secretary James Mattis and national security adviser John Bolton managed to keep US strategy on track without voicing how such a move would weaken American influence in Europe while strengthening Russia.

When Trump initially brought up leaving NATO, administration officials were unsure if he was serious, but they became worried when he returned to the subject several times, the report said.

Compounding the concerns now are recent reports in the New York Times and the Washington Post.

The FBI opened an investigation into whether Trump was working on behalf of the Russians when he fired FBI Director James Comey in May 2017, the Times reported last Friday.

And Trump went to great lengths to keep details of his meetings with Putin secret, even to the point of confiscating the notes of his translator after one meeting, the Washington Post reported on Sunday.

A senior administration official referred the Times to Trump’s earlier comments when he said the US commitment to NATO was “very strong” and declined to comment further.

Speaking outside the White House on Monday, Trump denied he worked on behalf of Russia.

“Not only did I never work for Russia, I think it’s a disgrace that you even asked that question because it’s a whole big, fat hoax,” he said.

Trump also dismissed the report about his sitdowns with Putin, calling it “fake news” and saying he has “one-on-one” meetings with a lot of world leaders.

The former supreme allied commander of NATO, retired Adm. James Stravridis, said a US withdrawal from the group would be “a geopolitical mistake of epic proportion.”

“Even discussing the idea of leaving NATO – let alone actually doing so – would be the gift of the century for Putin,” he told the Times.

The US would be able to pull out of NATO following a year’s notification period, the report said.