{"id":139660,"date":"2026-05-02T12:03:20","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T12:03:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/us-to-cut-troop-levels-in-germany-by-5000-amid-trump-spat-with-merz\/"},"modified":"2026-05-02T12:03:20","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T12:03:20","slug":"us-to-cut-troop-levels-in-germany-by-5000-amid-trump-spat-with-merz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/us-to-cut-troop-levels-in-germany-by-5000-amid-trump-spat-with-merz\/","title":{"rendered":"US to cut troop levels in Germany by 5,000 amid Trump spat with Merz"},"content":{"rendered":"

The US Defence Department plans to withdraw 5,000 troops from Germany, amid a spat between President Donald Trump and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz over the war with Iran.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The decision comes a day after Trump criticised Merz, who suggested the US had been \u201chumiliated\u201d by Iranian negotiators.<\/p>\n

The US has a significant military presence in Germany, with more than 36,000 active duty troops assigned to bases across the country as of last December.<\/p>\n

Defence Minister Boris Pistorius told the German Press Agency in Berlin that \u201cthe presence of American soldiers in Europe, and particularly in Germany, is in our interest and in the interest of the US\u201d.<\/p>\n

At the same time, he made it clear that the decision did not come as a surprise.<\/p>\n

The fact that the US would withdraw troops from Europe and also from Germany \u201cwas foreseeable\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n

In social media posts on Thursday, Trump said Merz was \u201cdoing a terrible job\u201d and had \u201cproblems of all kinds\u201d, including on immigration and energy. Trump has also suggested pulling US troops from Italy and Spain.<\/p>\n

In a statement, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said the order about US troops in Germany had come from Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis decision follows a thorough review of the Department\u2019s force posture in Europe and is in recognition of theatre requirements and conditions on the ground,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe expect the withdrawal to be completed over the next six to twelve months.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump, a longtime critic of the Nato alliance, has been lashing out at allies over their refusal to participate in operations to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n

Asked on Thursday whether he would also consider pulling US troops from Italy and Spain, Trump responded: \u201cI probably will \u2013 look, why shouldn\u2019t I?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cItaly has not been of any help to us and Spain has been horrible,\u201d he added, criticising them for their response to the war in Iran.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn all cases they said, \u2018I don\u2019t want to get involved.’\u201d<\/p>\n

Merz told university students earlier this week that \u201cthe Americans clearly have no strategy\u201d and he could not see \u201cwhat strategic exit\u201d they might choose.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Iranians are obviously very skilled at negotiating, or rather, very skilful at not negotiating, letting the Americans travel to Islamabad and then leave again without any result,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He added that the \u201centire nation\u201d was being \u201chumiliated\u201d by the Iranian leadership.<\/p>\n

In response, Trump took to his platform Truth Social, where he said Merz thought it was \u201cOK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon\u201d and \u201cdoesn\u2019t know what he\u2019s talking about\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo wonder Germany is doing so poorly, both Economically, and otherwise!\u201d the post read.<\/p>\n

The BBC has contacted the German embassy in Washington for comment.<\/p>\n

The US military deployment in Germany is by far its biggest in Europe, with about 12,000 troops in Italy and a further 10,000 in the UK.<\/p>\n

Many are stationed at Ramstein Air Base outside the south-western German city of Kaiserslautern.<\/p>\n

Trump has previously proposed US troop reductions in Germany, but they have so far not come in to effect.<\/p>\n

Only Japan hosts a larger US troop presence.<\/p>\n

In 2020, a proposal to move 12,000 US troops from Germany either to other Nato countries in Europe or back to the US was blocked by Congress and then reversed by President Joe Biden.<\/p>\n

At the time, Trump had accused Germany of being \u201cdelinquent\u201d because its military spending was well below Nato\u2019s target of 2% of economic output (GDP).<\/p>\n

But that has changed dramatically under the Merz government.<\/p>\n

Germany is projected to spend \u20ac105.8bn (\u00a391bn) in 2027 \u2013 with total defence expenditure next year set to reach 3.1% of GDP.<\/p>\n

Last year, the US decided to reduce its troop presence in Romania, as part of Trump\u2019s plan to shift the focus of US military commitment from Europe to the Indo-Pacific region.<\/p>\n

Romania\u2019s defence minister said the decision was made after Hegseth conveyed to the Romanians that they needed to pay more attention to their own defence.<\/p>\n

The decision was met with disapproval from some of Trump\u2019s fellow Republicans in Congress, and concern from other Eastern European countries wary of Russia.<\/p>\n

The post US to cut troop levels in Germany by 5,000 amid Trump spat with Merz<\/a> appeared first on KBC Digital<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The US Defence Department plans to withdraw 5,000 troops from Germany, amid a spat between President Donald Trump and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz over the war with Iran. The decision comes a day after Trump criticised Merz, who suggested the US had been \u201chumiliated\u201d by Iranian negotiators. The US has a significant military presence in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-139660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139660"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139660\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}