President Donald Trump’s announcement Wednesday that he was considering pulling some U.S. troops out of Germany stunned defense officials, who scrambled to figure out if the president was serious about following through on his threats this time.
Trump’s social media post was the first that many had heard of a potential new push to take hundreds, if not thousands, of American troops out of Germany, according to three defense officials. It strongly contrasts a recently concluded monthslong review of the Pentagon’s global troop footprint, which did not call for major pullbacks from Europe.
The Pentagon “was not expecting it and has not been planning any kind of drawdown,” said a congressional aide familiar with the situation. “But we have to take him seriously because he was serious about it during his first administration,” referring to Trump’s July 2020 order to pull 12,000 U.S. troops out of Germany that was never implemented.
While previous threats from Trump have not come to fruition, he’s ratcheted up his anti-European rhetoric in his second term, from threatening to pull out of NATO due to allies’ failure to join the Iran war to warning he might seize Greenland.
Trump’s latest threat to the transatlantic alliance comes just days after German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said the U.S. was being “humiliated” by Iran at the negotiating table. Trump continued to launch broadsides against the German leader on Thursday, calling for Merz to “spend more time” on ending Russia’s war with Ukraine and solving European energy and immigration problems “and less time on interfering with those that are getting rid of the Iran Nuclear threat.”
Trump’s initial post came hours after he spoke by phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has long sought to reduce the number of NATO troops in Europe. And it occurred as Germany’s Chief of Defence, Gen. Carsten Breuer, wrapped up a day of meetings with U.S. officials in Washington to discuss Berlin’s new defense strategy.
German officials reacted with surprise to the president’s posts after having had productive talks with their U.S. counterparts, said a senior German official, who, like others in this story, was granted anonymity to talk about sensitive military planning.
“As Europe’s largest economy, Germany has the ambition to take on a greater leadership role within NATO,” Breuer told reporters after those meetings. “It’s clear for Germany to take over more responsibility” of its own defense.
Trump’s comments also came as Army Secretary Dan Driscoll wrapped up a two-day trip to German training ranges this week to underscore the U.S. presence in the country.
“The War Department plans for every scenario, and we are fully prepared to execute the orders of the Commander-in-Chief at the time and place of his choosing, said Chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Taking out American forces could remove a major military deterrent against a rearming Russia, which European officials believe is preparing to attack NATO soil in the coming years. And Trump’s threats have made European officials, who are already making plans to try to reopen the Strait of Hormuz without Trump, even more sick of America playing hostage diplomacy with allies.
Even a review of U.S. troops in Germany could further ignite tensions in the alliance after several NATO members denied the Pentagon access to their bases for the Iran war.
“Trump’s policy of crude threats has reached its limits,” said a German official. “His rhetoric has worn thin. Withdrawing U.S. troops from Germany would severely weaken the U.S. itself, and we wonder when the adults in D.C. plan to step back into the spotlight.”
Executing a snap withdrawal of American forces from Germany would be difficult for a Pentagon already embroiled in an ongoing war in Iran.
Germany hosts between 35,000 and 40,000 U.S. troops, and provides land for basing for free as well as a local workforce to support American troops. The Pentagon also runs two of its main military hubs out of Germany — U.S. European and U.S. Africa Command — along with the largest Pentagon hospital outside American soil.
“There’s a moving cost, and then depending on where you’re moving them to, there could be construction costs that are substantial,” said Todd Harrison, a defense budget analyst at American Enterprise Institute. “We’re not going to have facilities to house them in Poland, so that would be a very long-term construction cost” to move them.
It would also be expensive to move those troops, their families and equipment back to the U.S., given there likely isn’t available housing for them.
U.S. forces based in Germany are critical to Washington’s global military posture and nuclear deterrence. American air bases can route troops through the Middle East and Africa, U.S. military hospitals, and massive training ranges that host exercises for U.S. and NATO forces.
Previous threats to withdraw forces from Europe drew fire from congressional Republicans. But senior GOP lawmakers on Thursday were still cautious about Trump’s latest broadsides.
“We need to hear more about the strategy behind this,” said Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.). “Ramstein is a strategic, important base, so I’d have to hear more about pulling troops out of there. Maybe we need to redistribute some personnel.”
Defense legislation that became law in December bars the Pentagon from reducing total troop levels on the continent below 76,000 until it assesses the risks and certifies doing so is in U.S. security interests. Germany had appeared “pretty safe” from Trump’s threats to punish NATO nations “because it’s stepping up on a bunch of things” related to European defense, said a second congressional aide.
As recently as last week, Pentagon officials praised Germany’s efforts to boost its defense, including plans to increase defense spending to 3.7 percent of GDP by 2030. Germany will also host the first European manufacturing plants for the Patriot air defense systems, and plans to boost production of Stinger missiles and 155mm artillery. The country has even embedded a senior U.S. military official deep in its own command structures.
Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) said he didn’t think U.S. policy in Europe had shifted.
The president “was responding back to some comments made, I suspect, by some German officials,” said Rounds, who is on the Senate Armed Services Committee. “I’m looking more at his actual actions, as opposed to the comments he’s making in the public.”
Leo Shane III and Connor O’Brien contributed to this report. Stefanie Bolzen is a reporter for WELT, a publication owned by Axel Springer, POLITICO’s parent company.
