WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump, who has criticised Germany and different NATO allies for not sending their navies to help open the Strait of Hormuz, mentioned on Wednesday (Apr 29) his administration is decreasing the variety of US troops in Germany.
“The US is finding out and reviewing the potential discount of Troops in Germany, with a dedication to be revamped the following brief time period,” Trump mentioned on Reality Social.
A senior White Home official had advised Reuters earlier this month that Trump had mentioned the potential of eradicating some US troops from Europe.
The US had simply over 68,000 active-duty navy personnel assigned completely in its abroad bases in Europe as of December 2025, information from the US Protection Manpower Knowledge Middle (DMDC) reveals.
Greater than half – about 36,400 – are based mostly in Germany. That may be a fraction of the 250,000 US troops that had been based mostly there in 1985, earlier than the autumn of the Berlin Wall and the top of the Chilly Struggle.
TRUMP AND MERZ SPAR OVER IRAN WAR
Trump has been sparring with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz over the struggle in Iran in current days. On Tuesday, he mentioned Merz did not know what he was speaking about after the German chief mentioned the Iranians had been humiliating the US in talks to finish the two-month-old struggle. Merz on Wednesday mentioned relations with Trump had been good, regardless of the row over the struggle.
Trump’s publish got here hours after Germany‘s prime basic, Carsten Breuer, met with Protection Undersecretary Elbridge Colby and different US defence officers on Wednesday to debate his nation’s first navy technique outdoors the NATO umbrella since World Struggle II.
Colby lauded the German doc, which lays out Berlin’s objective to turn out to be Europe’s largest typical drive in a sequence of posts on X after it was launched final week, saying it confirmed “a transparent path ahead”.
“President Trump has rightly laid out that Europe should step up, and NATO should now not be a paper tiger,” Colby mentioned on X. “Germany is now taking the main position on this. After years of disarmament, Berlin is stepping up.”
