US President Donald Trump has signalled that the planned reduction of American troops in Germany will be far larger than the 5,000 soldiers the Pentagon announced on Friday. Speaking to reporters in Florida on Saturday, Trump said: “We’re going to cut way down. And we’re cutting a lot further than 5,000.” He offered no further details on the scale or timeline of the withdrawal.
The announcement deepens a growing rift between Washington and Berlin, just a day after the Pentagon confirmed it would pull roughly one-seventh of the 36,000 US service members stationed in Germany within the next six to twelve months. The initial drawdown had already drawn bipartisan criticism in the United States, with Democrats and some Republicans warning it would send the “wrong signal” to Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose invasion of Ukraine is now in its fifth year.
Merz under fire from Trump over Iran
The troop cut is widely seen as retaliation for German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s recent criticism of the US-led war in Iran. Merz argued that Washington lacked a coherent strategy and clear objectives, saying the US was being “humiliated” by Tehran. Trump has lashed out at Merz, as well as Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, for refusing to join the US-Israeli campaign against Iran.
Earlier in the week, Trump also threatened to reduce troop levels in Italy and Spain, where the US maintains over 12,500 and close to 4,000 troops respectively. Those threats followed similar clashes over the Iran conflict. The broader US military footprint in Europe typically ranges between 80,000 and 100,000 active-duty personnel, depending on operations and rotations.
German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius responded to the initial 5,000-troop cut with a measured tone, saying the move had been expected for years. “The presence of American soldiers in Europe, and especially in Germany, is in our interest and in the interest of the US,” Pistorius told German media. He stressed that European nations must take on more responsibility for their own defence, but emphasised that transatlantic security cooperation remains mutually beneficial.
In a related escalation, Trump accused the European Union of failing to comply with its trade commitments and announced plans to raise tariffs on EU-produced cars and trucks to 25% next week. The move would hit Germany’s automotive industry particularly hard. Bernd Lange, chair of the European Parliament’s trade committee, called the tariff hike “unacceptable” and labelled Washington an “unreliable” trading partner.
The twin pressures — military and economic — come as Trump seethes over Europe’s reluctance to back his Iran policy. The US president has also rejected a recent Iranian peace proposal, as reported in Trump Rejects Iran's New Peace Proposal as War Stalemate Continues. Meanwhile, the Pentagon has offered few specifics on which units or operations in Germany will be affected by the troop reduction.
For European leaders, the developments underscore a growing sense that Washington’s commitment to NATO and the continent’s security is conditional on political alignment with the White House. As Trump prepares to hike auto tariffs and pull troops, the transatlantic partnership faces one of its most serious tests in decades.
