Nor will they be cut back from being stationed in Europe….
Why Trump questioned the policy, which has been questioned by Republican political figures before?
The policy remains unchanged since the second world war….
Those troops are an assurance to Europe that the United States has a foot in their back yard and would be instantly involved if a Russian military action came over the fence….
Of course that may, or may not apply to former satellite countries of Russia as we watched Russia come over the fence in the Ukraine and snatch the Crimea….
Trump visits Belgium this coming week to hang out with the leaders of the NATO alliance that he is fighting economically with tariffs….
Those leaders have to be a bit worried since Trump seems to be trying advance their political foe Russian President Putins agenda in dividing Europe and cozying up to the Russian leader….
President Donald Trump is not planning to threaten to pull U.S.troops from Germany and Europe, despite reports he asked aides about that possibility.
The clarification from the U.S. ambassador to NATO comes as Trump prepares to head to Brussels next week for the NATOSummit of heads-of-state. In the run up, Trump has renewed his criticism of some NATO members for not meeting the 2 percent-of-GDP pledge on defense spending, sending threatening letters to several of his counterparts.
Trump’s has steadily criticized NATO since early in his presidential candidacy, throwing U.S. support for transatlantic defense in doubt. After Trump’s administration began, senior U.S. and military officials have repeatedly said that the United States would honor it’s ”Article 5” commitment to defend NATO members and fully support the alliance, even though Trump has often suggested since before he was elected that the US may not come to Europe’s defense if those countries don’t start paying more of their share into the collective.
“There is nothing being said at all about the troop alignment in Germany or anything that would change the 32,000 troop force that we have in Germany,” said U.S. Ambassador to NATO Kay Bailey Hutchison, on a White House conference call with reporters Thursday organized to preview the July 11-12 summit (and following next week’s meeting between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, in Helsinki, Finland.)…
Note…
For you political types?
Please note the two US officials doing the talking in this piece…..