- The Pentagon announced the withdrawal of 5,000 troops.
- Two top Republican lawmakers express concern.
- The movement spells end at the long-range missile battalion in Germany.
The planned withdrawal of 5,000 US troops from Germany has sparked a new debate over Europe’s defense responsibilities, with German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius saying the move should prompt European allies to strengthen their own military capabilities.
The Pentagon confirmed on Friday the withdrawal from Germany, the largest US military center in Europe, amid growing tensions between Washington and European capitals over the war with Iran and trade tariffs.
However, US President Donald Trump indicated that the reduction could be just the beginning. “We’re going to cut a lot, and we’re going to cut a lot more than 5,000,” he told reporters in Florida on Saturday when asked about the plan.
The announcement also raised concern among two top Republican lawmakers, who warned that troops should not withdraw from Europe, underscoring divisions within Washington over the future of the US military presence on the continent.
As part of the US decision, a Biden-era plan to deploy a US battalion with long-range Tomahawk missiles to Germany was also abandoned, a blow to Berlin, which had pushed the move as a powerful deterrent against Russia.
Republican lawmakers Sen. Roger Wicker and Rep. Mike Rogers, chairmen of the Senate and House Armed Services Committees, said they were “very concerned.” They said that troops should not be moved from Europe, but to the east.
“Prematurely reducing the US forward presence in Europe before those capabilities are fully realized risks undermining deterrence and sending the wrong signal to (Russian President) Vladimir Putin,” they said in a joint statement.
NATO works with Washington for more details
Pistorius said the partial withdrawal was expected and would affect the current US presence of nearly 40,000 troops stationed in Germany.
“We Europeans must take greater responsibility for our own security,” Pistorius said, adding that “Germany is on the right path” by expanding its armed forces, accelerating military procurement and building infrastructure.
Trump called for a reduced military presence in Germany already during his first term and has repeatedly urged Europe to take responsibility for its defense. However, he escalated the threat earlier this week after arguing with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who questioned Washington’s exit strategy in the Middle East.
The Pentagon said the troop withdrawal was expected to be completed in the next six to 12 months. He did not say which bases would be affected, nor whether troops would return to the United States or be redeployed within Europe or elsewhere.
A NATO spokesman said the alliance was working with the United States to understand the details of the decision.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, whose country is seeking assurances of continued American support on NATO’s eastern flank amid the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, also expressed concern about the latest setback to the alliance.
“The greatest threat to the transatlantic community is not its external enemies, but the current disintegration of our alliance. We must all do what is necessary to reverse this disastrous trend,” Tusk wrote in X on Saturday.
The Pentagon plans were the latest blow to Germany from Washington this weekend, after Trump said he would raise tariffs on EU car imports to 25%, accusing the EU of failing to respect a trade deal, in a move that threatens to cost the German economy billions.
A foreign policy official from Chancellor Merz’s CDU party said the two announcements should be seen in light of pressure on Trump both at home and abroad, amid weak opinion polls and pressure over unresolved conflicts in Ukraine, Venezuela and Iran.
“In this context, both the troop withdrawal and the trade policy seem less the expression of a coherent strategy and more a political reflex and a reaction born of frustration,” Peter Beyer told Reuters.
Long-range fire battalion canceled
NATO members have promised to take greater responsibility for their own defense, but with tight budgets and large gaps in military capacity, it will take years for the region to meet its own security needs.
Germany wants to increase the number of Bundeswehr soldiers on active duty from the current 185,000 to 260,000, although critics of the defense minister have called for more in response to a widely perceived growing threat from Russia.
The American military presence in Germany, which began as an occupying force after World War II, peaked during the 1960s, when hundreds of thousands of American military personnel were stationed there to counter the Soviet Union during the Cold War.
The presence includes the giant Ramstein air base and the Landstuhl hospital, both of which have been used by the United States to support its war in Iran, as well as previous conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Pentagon’s decision means that an entire brigade will leave Germany and a long-range fire battalion that was due to deploy later this year will be canceled.
Long-range shots were supposed to constitute an important additional deterrent against Russia, while the Europeans were developing long-range missiles themselves.
The United States “has a real monopoly within NATO” on long-range fires, Christian Moelling, director of the European defense think tank EDINA, wrote in X. “So, from an operational point of view, this is more serious than the number of troops.”
