WASHINGTON — The Pentagon said Friday that roughly 5,000 U.S. service members will be pulled out of Germany within the next six to 12 months, carrying out a move President Donald Trump threatened as he sparred with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz over the U.S. war with Iran.
The decision, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said, “follows a thorough review of the Department’s force posture in Europe and is in recognition of theater requirements and conditions on the ground.” Germany currently hosts a range of U.S. military assets, including the headquarters of U.S. European and Africa Commands, Ramstein Air Base, the Landstuhl medical center that treated casualties from Afghanistan and Iraq, and U.S. nuclear weapons. The planned withdrawal represents about 14% of the roughly 36,000 American troops stationed in Germany.
The announcement drew immediate criticism from Democrats in Congress and some national security experts, who warned the move could aid Russian President Vladimir Putin and weaken U.S. alliances. Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the action “suggests American commitments to our allies are dependent on the president’s mood” and urged that it be halted to avoid long-term harm to alliances and national security. Bradley Bowman of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies said U.S. forces in Germany and elsewhere in Europe bolster deterrence against Russia and enable American power projection into the Mediterranean, Middle East and Africa.
Trump, who declined to answer reporters’ questions about the withdrawal as he boarded Air Force One in Ocala, Fla., made similar threats during his first term to remove about 9,500 of roughly 34,500 troops then in Germany; that drawdown never began and President Joe Biden formally canceled the proposal after taking office in 2021. Trump has for years pushed for a reduced U.S. presence in Germany and criticized NATO for not doing more to support Washington in the war that began Feb. 28 with U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran. This week he said the U.S. was reviewing possible reductions in Germany and suggested a decision would come soon. He also criticized Merz on social media, saying the German leader should focus on ending the war with Russia and fixing domestic issues rather than commenting on Iran.
Allies in NATO have long anticipated potential U.S. troop reductions and been warned they may need to shoulder more of their own defense, including support for Ukraine. Typically, some 80,000–100,000 U.S. personnel are stationed in Europe depending on operations, exercises and rotations; NATO officials have expected that many of the U.S. troops sent to bolster deterrence after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 would be among the first to leave.
European security experts have expressed particular concern about possible redeployments of equipment such as Patriot missile systems and munitions from Germany to the Middle East. Ed Arnold of the Royal United Services Institute in London said Europe is focused on those materiel moves. In October, the U.S. announced a short-notice reduction of 1,500–3,000 troops on NATO’s borders with Ukraine, a move that unsettled Romania, where NATO operates an air base.
