Europe rattled by ‘disastrous trend’ as Trump pulls 5,000 troops out of Germany

European leaders on Saturday called on the continent to learn to defend itself after Pentagon officials announced the United States was withdrawing about 5,000 troops from Germany.

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The decision to withdraw came after Chancellor Friedrich Merz said the United States had been “humiliated” by Iran, provoking a row with Washington and ending weeks of frustration from President Donald Trump that U.S. allies in Europe were not doing enough to help resolve the growing crisis in the Middle East.

It comes at a time of deep divisions between Washington and its European allies, with transatlantic tensions already exacerbated by tariff threats, U.S. pressure on Ukraine to make concessions to Russia in exchange for peace, and Trump’s push earlier this year to seize Greenland, the semi-autonomous territory of NATO ally Denmark.

“The withdrawal of American troops from Europe and Germany was predictable,” German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said on Saturday. Nearly 40,000 U.S. troops are currently stationed in Germany, he said — the largest contingent in Europe and a key logistical hub for U.S. forces on the continent.

“We Europeans must take more responsibility for our security,” he added. “Germany is on the right track.”

Berlin has already expanded its armed forces, acquired more equipment, focusing on innovation and building more infrastructure, Pistorius said.

For weeks, Trump has expressed dissatisfaction with NATO and its European allies, including Germany, over their lukewarm, if any, support for his war against Iran. He also threatened to pull the United States out of NATO, while Trump administration officials warned that relations with U.S. allies cannot be “one-way.”

The news of the partial withdrawal of American troops from Germany has aroused a certain pragmatism, but also a certain concern in European capitals and at NATO headquarters in Brussels.

NATO spokeswoman Allison Hart said the alliance was working with the United States to understand the details of its withdrawal decision.

“This adjustment underlines the need for Europe to continue to invest more in defense and to take greater responsibility for our common security,” she said, adding that NATO allies had already agreed last year to invest 5% of their GDP in defense.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has called for reversing a “disastrous trend” in which Europe and Washington are drifting further apart.

“The greatest threat to the transatlantic community lies not in its external enemies, but in the ongoing disintegration of our alliance,” Tusk, whose country is located on NATO’s eastern flank and relies heavily on the alliance to counter the Russian threat in neighboring Ukraine, wrote in a message published Saturday.

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British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, whom Trump personally attacked for his lack of support for the Iran war, avoided directly mentioning the troop withdrawal in a BBC interview on Saturday, but said Europe was “not strong enough” and “it is up to us as leaders to intervene in that space.”

“We need Britain to be at the heart of a stronger defense Europe,” he said, expressing hope for realignment after years of tensions with the country’s neighbors following Brexit.

The troop withdrawal is hardly surprising, said Michał Matlak, a senior researcher at the European University Institute and director of the Warsaw Institute of Innovation and Technology.

“It’s not a turning point, I would say, but one step closer to a transatlantic divorce,” Matlak told NBC News.

Given the size of the U.S. contingent in Europe, the withdrawal of 5,000 troops does not constitute a crucial difference to U.S. operations on the continent or to its security situation, Matlak said, but it will certainly be treated as “another warning sign.”

Former US ambassador to NATO, Kurt Volker, acknowledged that although the decision is “a clear signal of dissatisfaction with Germany”, it cannot change the “real military capacity” of the United States in Europe.

Both sides have an interest “in an effective American military presence in Germany,” he told the BBC, adding: “We will all live beyond the Trump era, and I hope NATO will also live beyond the Trump era.” »

American troops are stationed in more than a dozen European countries, with Germany, Italy and Britain having the largest presence. U.S. European Command oversees U.S. military operations across Europe in cooperation with NATO allies.

The Pentagon announced Friday that the withdrawal of 5,000 troops from Germany would be completed within six months to a year. A defense bill passed by Congress last year limits the Defense Department’s ability to reduce the number of U.S. troops in Europe to fewer than 76,000 troops.

The realization that Europe should defend itself and be less dependent on the United States has been building for some time, Matlak said, but European leaders differ on how to get there.

“How strong should the separation between the United States and Europe be? What should be the role of European institutions? What should be the role of NATO? What should be the role of national armies? There are differences here, and that is the crucial question, not the awareness of the seriousness of the situation and the need for Europe to rearm,” Matlak added. “It’s clear, there’s a consensus here, and obviously President Trump helped bring that about, because even most of the pro-Atlantic countries are now very reluctant and cautious about the role of the United States.”