I’d rate any actual significant cut in US Forces from Germany as remote….
But President Trump getting dissed by the German Leader Merz has Donald annoyed…
And when he gets annoyed?
He tends to say and try to do stupid things….
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.
Trump’s latest threat to the transatlantic alliance comes just days after German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said the U.S. was being “humiliated” by Iran at the negotiating table. Trump continued to launch broadsides against the German leader on Thursday, calling for Merz to “spend more time” on ending Russia’s war with Ukraine and solving European energy and immigration problems “and less time on interfering with those that are getting rid of the Iran Nuclear threat.”
Trump’s initial post came hours after he spoke by phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has long sought to reduce the number of NATO troops in Europe. And it occurred as Germany’s Chief of Defence, Gen. Carsten Breuer, wrapped up a day of meetings with U.S. officials in Washington to discuss Berlin’s new defense strategy.
German officials reacted with surprise to the president’s posts after having had productive talks with their U.S. counterparts, said a senior German official, who, like others in this story, was granted anonymity to talk about sensitive military planning.
“As Europe’s largest economy, Germany has the ambition to take on a greater leadership role within NATO,” Breuer told reporters after those meetings. “It’s clear for Germany to take over more responsibility” of its own defense.
Trump’s comments also came as Army Secretary Dan Driscoll wrapped up a two-day trip to German training ranges to underscore the U.S. presence in the country….
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