Trump studies Germany troop cuts after Merz criticism — News Trump
Donald Trump said news trump is studying and reviewing a possible reduction of US troops in Germany after Friedrich Merz criticized the Iran war and said the United States was being “humiliated” by Iran. Trump said a determination would be made “over the next short period of time.” Germany hosts the largest active-duty US deployment in Europe.
The US president also posted that Merz “thinks it’s OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon” and that he “doesn’t know what he’s talking about!” Trump added: “No wonder Germany is doing so poorly, both Economically, and otherwise!”
Trump and Merz
Merz made his remarks this week at a recent meeting with high school students, saying the war “is costing us a lot of money … and a lot of economic strength.” He said, “This war against Iran has a direct impact on our economic performance, and for that reason it must be brought to an end as soon as possible.”
Trump answered with a fresh threat aimed at Germany’s troop level. He said the United States was “studying and reviewing the possible reduction of troops in Germany, with a determination to be made over the next short period of time.”
Germany’s US troop presence
Latest US figures suggested there were some 86,000 US soldiers in Europe, with 36,000 to 39,000 of those soldiers in Germany. The latest DMDC location report from December put the number in Germany at 36,436. Germany has 20 US bases, including the largest in Stuttgart and Ramstein.
Italy had 12,662 active duty US personnel, the UK had 10,156, and Spain had 3,814. That makes Germany the hub of the biggest US active-duty deployment in Europe, which is why any reduction would reach well beyond one bilateral dispute.
Global posture review
The Trump administration is also carrying out a global posture review that could recommend movements of troops. Die Welt said Trump made similar comments during his first term from 2017 to 2021, which places the latest warning inside a longer pattern rather than a one-off outburst.
For Germany, the immediate issue is not whether US troops stay in Europe, but whether Washington changes the scale of the force in the country that carries the largest share. Trump said the decision will come over the next short period of time, leaving Berlin to weigh the military and political fallout of a review already under way.
