Trump's call to reduce US troops in Germany shocks Pentagon

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Politico

04/30/2026 01:28 PM EDT Updated: 04/30/2026 02:11 PM EDT


President Donald Trump’s announcement Wednesday that he was considering pulling some U.S. troops out of Germany stunned defense officials, who scrambled to figure out if the president was serious about following through on his threats this time.

Trump’s social media post was the first that many had heard of a potential new push to take hundreds, if not thousands, of American troops out of Germany, according to three defense officials. It strongly contrasts a recently concluded monthslong review of the Pentagon’s global troop footprint, which did not call for major pullbacks from Europe.

The Pentagon “was not expecting it and has not been planning any kind of drawdown,” said a congressional aide familiar with the situation. “But we have to take him seriously because he was serious about it during his first administration,” referring to Trump’s July 2020 order to pull 12,000 U.S. troops out of Germany that was never implemented.

While previous threats from Trump have not come to fruition, he’s ratcheted up his anti-European rhetoric in his second term, from threatening to pull out of NATO due to allies’ failure to join the Iran war to warning he might seize Greenland.

Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2026/04/30/trump-germany-troop-pullout-pentagon-shocked-00900619?utm_content=politico/magazine/Politics&utm_source=flipboard

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REFERENCE - https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143658583