Trump says that he’s is weighing reducing American troop presence in Germany after Iran feud
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump issued a new threat against NATO ally Germany on Wednesday, suggesting he may soon scale back the U.S. military presence there as he continues to feud with Chancellor Friedrich Merz over the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran.
Trump made the threat after Merz said earlier this week that the United States was being “humiliated” by Iran’s leaders and criticized Washington’s lack of strategy in the war. Trump has also repeatedly criticized NATO for the alliance’s refusal to help the United States in its two-month-old war.
“The United States is studying and reviewing the possibility of a troop reduction in Germany, with a determination to take place in a short period of time,” Trump said in a social media post.
Merz said earlier Wednesday that his personal relationship with Trump remained “as good as ever,” but he had “doubts from the beginning about what started there with the war in Iran.”
During his first term in the White House, Trump also decided to reduce U.S. troops in Germany, believing the country was spending too little on defense.
In June 2020, Trump announced that he would withdraw about 9,500 of the roughly 34,500 U.S. troops then stationed in Germany, but the process never actually got underway. Democratic President Joe Biden officially ended the planned withdrawal shortly after taking office in 2021.
The United States has several major military installations in the country, including the headquarters of U.S. European Command and U.S. Africa Command, Ramstein Air Base, and Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, the largest U.S. hospital outside the United States.
Merz met with Trump at the White House in March, just days after the United States and Israel began bombing Iran. At the time, Merz told Trump that Germany looked forward to working with the United States on a strategy for when the current Iranian government no longer exists. Merz also expressed concern that a prolonged conflict could cause serious damage to the global economy.
His concern, like that of many other European leaders, has only grown as the United States and Iran have yet to reach an agreement to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the critical waterway through which about 20 percent of the world’s oil supply passed before the start of the war. It has been effectively closed since the start of the conflict on February 28.
“We are suffering greatly in Germany and Europe from the consequences of, for example, the closure of the Strait of Hormuz,” Merz said Wednesday, hours before Trump posted his threat on social media. “And in this regard, I insist that this conflict be resolved.”
Merz added that his government was “on good terms” with the Trump administration.
Trump, for his part, has struggled to contain his frustration with Merz.
On Tuesday, he wrote: “German Chancellor Friedrich Merz thinks it is acceptable for Iran to have nuclear weapons. He doesn’t know what he is talking about!” Trump added that it was no surprise “that Germany is doing so badly, both economically and in other ways!” »
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AP writer Pietro De Cristofaro reported from Berlin.
