US President Donald Trump said the United States will soon decide whether to reduce its military presence in Germany, which hosts the largest concentration of US forces in Europe.
“The United States is studying and reviewing the possible reduction of troops in Germany, with a determination to be made over the next short period of time,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform.
As of December 2025, more than 36,000 active service members were stationed in Germany, according to the US Defense Manpower Data Center. That total includes personnel at Ramstein in southwestern Germany, the US’s largest overseas air base. Germany is home to five of the seven US garrisons in Europe; after Germany, the United Kingdom and Italy host the next-largest US forces on the continent.
Rumors of possible US troop withdrawals from Germany have circulated in recent months. Trump’s announcement came days after German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said the US had been “humiliated” by Iran’s leadership, criticizing Iranian negotiating behavior and singling out the Revolutionary Guards.
Merz said: “The Iranians are obviously very skilled at negotiating, or rather, very skillful at not negotiating, letting the Americans travel to Islamabad and then leave again without any result. An entire nation is being humiliated by the Iranian leadership, especially by these so-called Revolutionary Guards. And so I hope that this ends as quickly as possible.”
After Merz’s comments, Trump responded on Truth Social that Merz “doesn’t know what he’s talking about!”
German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul later clarified Merz’s remarks in an interview with DW, saying they were directed at Iran’s behavior. “They are, as I said, misunderstanding their position and overplaying their role, so this is what the chancellor said,” Wadephul told DW’s Berlin bureau chief Max Hoffmann in New York City.
Edited by: Zac Crellin