Trump plans deeper troop cuts in Germany beyond the 5,000 announced by Pentagon

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The Pentagon on Friday confirmed a decision to relocate roughly 5,000 of the 36,000 American troops stationed in Germany — about one-seventh of the permanent force — but President Donald Trump made clear on Saturday that the administration’s ambition goes deeper. Speaking to reporters in Florida, Trump said the U.S. would cut its German footprint “way down” and that the eventual withdrawal would be “a lot further than 5,000,” declining to offer a reason for the accelerated retrenchment.

The announcement extends a pattern of friction between Trump and Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who last week criticized the American-led war in Iran, saying the United States is being “humiliated” by Tehran’s leadership and is operating without a clear strategy. Merz is one of several European leaders whom Trump has rebuked for declining to join the Iran campaign. Alongside the troop announcement, the president said he would raise tariffs on cars and trucks produced in the European Union to 25 percent, a move aimed squarely at Germany’s automotive sector. A European Union lawmaker called the tariff escalation “unacceptable” and accused Trump of breaking a prior U.S. trade commitment.

Boris Pistorius, Germany’s defense minister, addressed the initial 5,000-person drawdown in remarks to the German news agency dpa, calling the pullback expected and reiterating that European states need to accept more responsibility for their own defense. “The presence of American soldiers in Europe, and especially in Germany, is in our interest and in the interest of the U.S.,” Pistorius said, linking security cooperation to mutual advantage even as he acknowledged Germany’s obligation to strengthen its armed forces and speed procurement.

Inside the U.S. government, the Pentagon’s process drew immediate friction. A defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive internal matters, said the military services had no prior warning of the drawdown order and learned of the decision “in real time.” Acting Pentagon press secretary Joel Valdez later said the withdrawal was the result of “a comprehensive, multilayered process” that incorporated views from leaders at U.S. European Command and throughout the chain of command.

The drawdown is scheduled over the next six to 12 months. The U.S. maintains about 80,000 to 100,000 personnel in Europe depending on operations, exercises, and troop rotations — a level that rose after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. NATO allies had anticipated for more than a year that these boosted numbers, rather than the permanent basing force, would be the first to decrease.

Key congressional Republicans voiced alarm over the weekend. Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi and Rep. Mike Rogers of Alabama, the ranking members of the Senate and House armed services committees, said in a joint statement that they were “very concerned” the withdrawal risked “undermining deterrence and sending the wrong signal to Vladimir Putin,” whose war in Ukraine is now in its fifth year. The lawmakers also said the Pentagon has decided to cancel the planned deployment of the Army’s Long-Range Fires Battalion, a detail the Defense Department did not include in its public statement. Wicker and Rogers urged the Pentagon to consult with oversight committees on any significant changes to the U.S. force posture in Europe.

NATO spokesperson Allison Hart said in a post on X that the trans-Atlantic alliance is “working with the U.S. to understand the details of their decision on force posture in Germany.” She added that the move “underscores the need for Europe to continue to invest more in defense and take on a greater share of the responsibility for our shared security,” noting that NATO members are making progress toward spending 5 percent of economic output on defense.

Germany hosts several critical American military facilities, including the headquarters of U.S. European Command and U.S. Africa Command, Ramstein Air Base, a Landstuhl medical center that treated casualties from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and storage sites for U.S. nuclear weapons. While defense officials said removing a single brigade combat team would have limited impact on the military’s combat power, a second anonymous defense official told the Associated Press that “in terms of messaging of U.S. commitment though, it’s very different.”

During his first administration, Trump announced a planned withdrawal of 9,500 troops from Germany but never initiated the process, and President Joe Biden formally halted the plan shortly after taking office in 2021. The last pullback also drew intense congressional opposition, and the bipartisan pushback that surfaced over the weekend — sharp criticism from Democrats joined by public alarm from senior Republican defense leaders — suggests the latest proposal will face similar legislative headwinds.