President Donald Trump on Saturday threatened to withdraw far more than the 5,000 U.S. troops he ordered removed from Germany a day earlier, escalating tensions with NATO allies as a U.S. naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz continues to push global energy prices higher.
“We are going to cut way down, and we’re cutting a lot further than 5,000,” Trump told reporters Saturday before boarding Air Force One.
The pullback is expected to affect a long-range fires battalion the Biden administration had slated for deployment in Germany later this year.
Lawmakers Warn of Putin Signal Risk
Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) condemned the decision, urging the forces be repositioned to eastern NATO allies rather than withdrawn altogether. The lawmakers warned the pullback risks sending “the wrong signal to Vladimir Putin” and called for “a deliberate review process and close coordination with Congress and our allies.”
They added: “We expect the Department to engage with its oversight committees in the days and weeks ahead on this decision and its implications for U.S. deterrence and transatlantic security.”
Not Trump’s First Move Against NATO
This is not Trump’s first pressure campaign on European allies. In 2020, he proposed pulling roughly 12,000 troops from Germany over defense spending failures. The Biden administration reversed it.
Trump has also threatened to exit NATO entirely, labeling it a “paper tiger.”
The U.S. president has also clashed with European allies over his push to acquire Greenland.
