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The United States is withdrawing 5,000 troops stationed in NATO ally Germany, the Pentagon announced Friday, as the dispute between President Donald Trump and Europe over the Iran war intensifies.
Trump threatened a troop withdrawal earlier this week after a clash with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who said on Monday that Iran was humiliating the United States in talks to end the two-month-old war and that he did not see what exit strategy Washington was pursuing.
A senior Pentagon official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said recent German rhetoric had been “inappropriate and unhelpful.”
“The president is right to respond to these counterproductive comments,” the official said.
The Pentagon said the withdrawal is expected to be completed in the next six to 12 months. There are around 35,000 US military personnel on active duty in Germany, more than anywhere else in Europe.
The official said the withdrawal would bring the number of U.S. troops in Europe roughly back to pre-2022 levels, before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sparked a surge under then-President Joe Biden.
The official also described the decision as part of the Trump administration’s push to make Europe the continent’s top security provider. Still, it’s another stark reminder of Trump’s willingness to respond to what he sees as disloyalty from his allies.
Reuters exclusively reported last week that an internal Pentagon email laid out options for punishing NATO allies that Washington believes did not support U.S. operations in the war with Iran, including suspending Spain from NATO and reviewing the U.S. position on Britain’s claim to the Falkland Islands.
Relations with European nations are weakening
It is unclear whether further withdrawals from Europe will follow. On Thursday, Trump said “probably” when asked if he would consider withdrawing U.S. troops from Italy and Spain.
Last month he threatened to impose a full U.S. trade embargo on Spain, where the Socialist leadership said it would not allow its bases or airspace to be used to attack Iran. The United States has two important military bases in Spain: the Rota naval base and the Morón air base.
Trump has also clashed with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni over the Iran war and Trump’s criticism of Pope Leo. The US president said in April that Meloni, once a strong Trump supporter, lacked courage and had let Washington down.
Trump has also reprimanded NATO allies for not sending their navy to help open the Strait of Hormuz. The waterway, a bottleneck for global oil shipments, remained virtually closed during the Iran conflict, causing market turmoil and unprecedented disruptions to energy supplies.
Merz said Germans and Europeans were not consulted before the US and Israel began attacking Iran on February 28, and he expressed his skepticism about the conflict directly to Trump afterwards.
“The president has made very clear his frustration with our allies’ rhetoric and failure to support U.S. operations that benefit them,” the senior Pentagon official said.
Trump has long wanted to reduce the US troop presence in Germany. At the end of his first term he pushed for a cut, but it was never implemented. Trump lost the election and Biden reversed the plan.
Trump’s announcement on Wednesday that he would review U.S. troop levels in Germany surprised German military officials who spoke to Reuters, citing what they described as constructive meetings at the Pentagon earlier in the day.
They argue that Germany has done more than other allies to support the US war in Iran, including allowing the use of bases and authorizing overflights. In Germany there is also a huge military hospital in Landstuhl.
Earlier this week, the federal government approved key targets for its 2027 budget, including a strong commitment to increasing defense spending.
Imran Bayoumi, a former Pentagon official, said that while Germany’s cuts were not as drastic as they could have been, they still risked further dividing the U.S. and Europe.
“European leaders are likely to push harder to increase their defense spending as they see Washington as increasingly unreliable and unreliable,” said Bayoumi, now a member of the Atlantic Council.
As part of Trump’s withdrawal decision, a brigade combat team currently in Germany will be withdrawn from the country, and a long-range fire battalion that the Biden administration had planned to deploy to Germany later this year will no longer be deployed, the official said.
