U.S. Plans to Withdraw 5,000 Troops from Germany Within 6–12 Months

WASHINGTON — The United States will withdraw about 5,000 troops from Germany over the next six to 12 months, the Pentagon said Friday, carrying out President Donald Trump’s threat amid tensions with Germany’s leader over the U.S. war with Iran. Former President Donald Trump had earlier this week threatened to withdraw some troops from a NATO ally after Chancellor Friedrich Merz said the United States was being “humiliated” by Iranian leadership and criticized Washington’s lack of a clear strategy in the war. Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement that the decision followed a comprehensive review of the Department of Defense’s force posture in Europe and reflected current operational needs and conditions on the ground. Germany hosts several U.S. military installations, including the headquarters for its European and Africa commands, Ramstein Air Base, and a major medical center in Landstuhl, where casualties from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have been treated. The United States also stations nuclear weapons in the country. The planned withdrawal would involve about 14% of the 36,000 U.S. service members currently stationed in Germany. News of the move prompted swift backlash from congressional Democrats and a Washington-based defense think tank, who argued it could benefit Russian President Vladimir Putin and undermine U.S. security interests. Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the decision “suggests American commitments to our allies are dependent on the president’s mood.” “The president should immediately halt this reckless action before it leads to irreversible consequences for our alliances and long-term national security,” Reed added. Bradley Bowman, a defense expert at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said the U.S. military presence in Germany and across Europe “not only strengthens deterrence against further Kremlin aggression but also enables the projection of American military power into the Mediterranean, the Middle East, and Africa.” Trump declined to answer reporters’ questions about the withdrawal on Friday as he boarded Air Force One in Ocala, Florida, after a rally promoting his economic agenda. He made a similar proposal during his first term, when he said he would withdraw about 9,500 of the roughly 34,500 U.S. troops then stationed in Germany. However, the plan was never implemented, and President Joe Biden formally halted it shortly after taking office in 2021. U.S. allies in NATO have been preparing for a potential troop withdrawal since Trump took office, as Washington signaled that Europe would need to take greater responsibility for its own security—including support for Ukraine—in the future. Depending on operations, exercises, and troop rotations, roughly 80,000 to 100,000 U.S. personnel are typically stationed across Europe. For more than a year, NATO allies have anticipated that the additional forces deployed after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 would be the first to be withdrawn. Ed Arnold, a European security expert at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) in London, said European concerns are focused more on the possible redeployment of key assets—such as Patriot missile systems and ammunition—from Germany to the Middle East. In October, the United States confirmed plans to scale back its troop presence along NATO’s eastern flank near Ukraine. The decision to withdraw between 1,500 and 3,000 troops was made with little notice, unsettling allies such as Romania, where NATO operates an air base