Stunned by President Donald Trump’s decision to reduce U.S. troops in Germany, European leaders and mainstream media responded with a mix of outrage and panic.
Days after ordering the withdrawal of 5,000 troops stationed in Germany, President Trump signaled that deeper cuts in troop levels were imminent. According to recent U.S. military figures, of the 86,000 U.S. troops currently in Europe, roughly 39,000 are based in Germany. This is significantly larger than the 12,000 soldiers stationed in Italy or the 10,000 in the UK.
“We’re going to cut way down, and we’re cutting a lot further than 5,000,” he told reporters on Saturday.
President Trump’s decision came after German Chancellor Friedrich Merz claimed that the U.S. was being “humiliated by the Iranian leadership.”
Chancellor Merz has been critical of the U.S. military operation against Iran, despite previously admitting during the 12-Day War that Israel was doing ‘dirty work for us’ in the region. At the outset of the U.S.-Israeli operation against Iran, Chancellor Merz’s Defense Minister, Boris Pistorius, declared that “This is not our war.”
Germany’s chancellor should focus on “fixing his broken Country,” President Trump responded, “especially Immigration and Energy, and less time on interfering with those that are getting rid of the Iranian Nuclear threat, thereby making the World, including Germany, a safer place!”
After sharply attacking President Trump, Chancellor Merz and his government were now in damage control mode, The Guardian (UK ) newspaper noted Thursday:
On Thursday, Merz sought to strike a more conciliatory tone at a visit to a German military base in Münster, emphasising the importance of ties with Nato and the US, and criticising Iran for refusing to take part in peace negotiations.Without mentioning Trump, Merz said he believed in a Nato-led solution to the conflict in the Middle East, referring to a “reliable transatlantic partnership”.German officials were keen to dampen the row. Throughout Thursday they were at pains to point out the threats from the US to withdraw troops from German soil were far from new – Trump had made them during his first term in office – and they were ready for them.
The Trump-obsessed German media appears less conciliatory.
The country’s leading news weekly magazine, Der Spiegel, covered the news with the headline: “How Trump’s Anger is Impacting Germany.” The U.S. withdrawal will force Germany to spend more on defense, forcing Berlin to cut welfare programs and social spending.
The reduction in troop numbers will affect the regional economy where U.S. troops are stationed. “Besides aspects of national security, the [U.S. bases] are an important economic factor for the respective region, for example, through the employment of Germans or consumption by the U.S. military,” Die Süddeutsche Zeitung noted.
There was, however, a significant strategic downside of a U.S. disengagement in Germany. Berlin can live with a limited troop withdrawal, “but the closure of entire military bases would be a significant step,” the German daily warned. That move could “erode the U.S. commitment to NATO,” the daily added.
Others were in a more vindictive mode. German newspaper Die Tageszeitung urged Chancellor Merz to “follow up his clear criticism of the war in Iran with action” and “prohibit the U.S. from using the Ramstein airbase for its illegal operations.”
Swiss weekly Die Weltwoche didn’t take President Trump’s decision seriously, and ran the headline: “Troop Withdrawal from Germany? Trump is Bluffing.” The news magazine urged Chancellor Merz to call the bluff and tell Washington: “Why don’t you just close your bases here?”
“Europe rattled by ‘disastrous trend’ as Trump pulls 5,000 troops out of Germany,” NBC News observed on Saturday. While the broadcaster lauded ‘pragmatism’ shown by some in Europe, it noted that the “News of the partial U.S. troop pullout from Germany was [also] met with … alarm in European capitals and at NATO’s headquarters in Brussels.”
NBC News reported Polish and UK reactions:
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk called for the reversal of a “disastrous trend” in which Europe and Washington grow farther apart.“The greatest threat to the transatlantic community are not its external enemies, but the ongoing disintegration of our alliance,” Tusk, whose nation sits on NATO’s eastern flank and is heavily reliant on the alliance in countering the Russian threat in neighboring Ukraine, wrote in a post on X Saturday.U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, whom Trump has personally attacked for his lack of support for the Iran war, avoided directly mentioning the troop withdrawal in an interview with the BBC on Saturday, but said Europe was “not strong enough,” and “it falls on us as leaders to step up into that space.”“We need Britain at the heart of a stronger Europe on defense,” he said, expressing hope of a realignment after years of Brexit tensions with the country’s neighbors.
Europeans expect U.S. domestic pressure to force a reversal of Trump’s decision, as in his previous term. “In 2020, a proposal to move 12,000 US troops from Germany either to other Nato countries in Europe or back to the US was blocked by Congress and then reversed by President Joe Biden,” the BBC recalled.
(German media reports translated by the author)
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