Can editorial writing shape the foreign policy of a president without a government?

A visit by two U.S. lawmakers to Romania’s Mihail Kogălniceanu Air Base has given President Nicușor Dan a bipartisan audience for his effort to keep American forces in the country.

Dan met Republican Mike Rogers and Democrat Eric Sorensen at the base near Constanța. Rogers chairs the House Armed Services Committee, which helps draft the National Defense Authorization Act governing the Pentagon’s budget and policy. He has publicly opposed the withdrawal of the rotating U.S. brigade from Kogălniceanu and has accused Pentagon officials over the decision.

The withdrawal decision was announced on October 29 last year. According to former Defense Minister Ionuț Moșteanu, the rotating brigade numbered between 1,200 and 1,500 soldiers. Rogers was one of two committee chairmen who signed a statement in autumn 2025 opposing the withdrawal, alongside Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker.

Sorensen brings a different profile. A Democrat elected to Congress in 2023, he previously worked as a meteorologist and television weather presenter. He joined the committee in 2025 because his Illinois district includes Rock Island Arsenal and the Peoria Air National Guard base.

Neither lawmaker can decide the troop deployment alone, but their pairing sends a bipartisan signal about support for the American presence in Romania and Europe. The article argues that the visit can be tested against decisions in 2027. Clear provisions in the defense authorization bill to restore U.S. troop rotations around the Black Sea would show legislative purpose, while their absence would leave the trip looking largely ceremonial.