Donald Trump’s Pentagon announced on Friday that 5,000 troops will be removed from Germany within the next 6-12 months after German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said the U.S. was being “humiliated” by the Iranian leadership, and criticized the Trump administration for its lack of strategy in the war of choice.
Trump made the threat earlier in the week, but Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell announced the decision was based on a “review of the Department’s force posture in Europe and is in recognition of theater requirements and conditions on the ground.”
The number of troops leaving Germany would be 14% of the 36,000 American service members stationed there.
Typically around 80,000-100,000 American troops are stationed in Europe, but NATO allies have been expecting troop withdrawals for the past year.
- Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the decision suggests that “American commitments to our allies are dependent on the president’s mood.”
- Bradley Bowman at the hawkish think tank Foundation for Defense of Democracies said the U.S. military presence in German and elsewhere in Europe “not only strengthens deterrence against additional Kremlin aggression but also facilitates the projection of American military power into the Mediterranean, the Middle East, and Africa.”
The U.S. presence includes the giant Ramstein airbase and Landstuhl hospital, both of which have been used by the U.S. to support its war in Iran, as well as previous conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
One full brigade will be exiting Germany, as well as a long-range fires battalion expected to be deployed later this year will be cancelled.