President Donald Trump’s retaliatory outburst over the German chancellor’s criticism of his Iran war strategy has shocked the Pentagon, according to a report.
The thin-skinned president declared in a Truth Social post on Wednesday that the U.S. is “studying and reviewing the possible reduction of Troops in Germany, with a determination to be made over the next short period of time.“ Germany hosts more U.S. troops than any other European country.
Trump apparently failed to consult or inform Pentagon officials before making his announcement, which appeared aimed at getting back at German Chancellor Friedrich Merz for saying that the U.S. has been “humiliated” by Iran.
Defense officials are hastily trying to determine if the 79-year-old president actually intends to follow through on his threat, Politico reports, especially since a newly published Pentagon review of global U.S. troop placements did not recommend major reductions in Europe.
The Pentagon “was not expecting it and has not been planning any kind of drawdown,” a congressional aide familiar with the situation told Politico.
“But we have to take him seriously because he was serious about it during his first administration,” the aide continued, referring to Trump’s order in 2020 to withdraw a third of U.S. forces stationed in Germany that was never carried out.
Pentagon officials’ reported scramble to figure out if Trump is serious about his Truth Social post is complicated by his habit of issuing sweeping threats before backing down, including his threat against Iran that he would wipe out a “whole civilization.”
When reached for comment, Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell told the Daily Beast in a statement, “The War Department plans for every scenario, and we are fully prepared to execute the orders of the Commander-in-Chief at the time and place of his choosing.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Even Republicans in Congress aren’t sure how seriously to take the president’s announcement, with South Dakota Senator Mike Rounds downplaying it as just another post.
Trump “was responding back to some comments made, I suspect, by some German officials,” Rounds, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told Politico. “I’m looking more at his actual actions, as opposed to the comments he’s making in the public.”
North Dakota Senator Kevin Cramer tried to rationalize Trump’s decision as a redistribution of personnel.
“We need to hear more about the strategy behind this,” he told Politico. “Ramstein is a strategic, important base, so I’d have to hear more about pulling troops out of there. Maybe we need to redistribute some personnel.”
Germany has been a linchpin of America’s military presence in Europe ever since Allied forces occupied the country after World War II. Over 34,000 U.S. service members are stationed in the NATO nation, and the Pentagon runs the U.S. European Command, the U.S. Africa Command, and the largest Pentagon hospital abroad from bases in the country.
A German official said that withdrawing U.S. troops from Germany would be self-defeating for Washington.
“Trump’s policy of crude threats has reached its limits,” the official told Politico. “His rhetoric has worn thin. Withdrawing U.S. troops from Germany would severely weaken the U.S. itself, and we wonder when the adults in D.C. plan to step back into the spotlight.”
Trump has been angered that NATO allies, including Germany, the United Kingdom, Spain, and Italy, have rebuffed his pleas for military backing in his war against Iran. He has previously threatened to withdraw U.S. forces from Europe and suggested he could refuse to come to NATO members’ defense last month.
The president’s post came hours after he spoke with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin—NATO’s main enemy—and after Secretary of State Marco Rubio held a phone call with German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul.
Trump has been throwing a fit since Merz delivered a scathing takedown of the war on Iran while speaking to students in the town of Marsberg, in North Rhine-Westphalia, on Monday.
“The Iranians are clearly stronger than expected, and the Americans clearly have no truly convincing strategy in the negotiations either,” Merz told the audience.
The chancellor—long viewed in Berlin as one of Trump’s more sympathetic European counterparts—drew a stinging parallel with America’s past Middle East quagmires.
“The problem with conflicts like this is always: you don’t just have to get in, you have to get out again,” he said. “We saw that very painfully in Afghanistan for 20 years. We saw it in Iraq.”
Trump was still raging at Merz on Thursday morning.
“The Chancellor of Germany should spend more time on ending the war with Russia/Ukraine (Where he has been totally ineffective!), and fixing his broken Country, especially Immigration and Energy, and less time on interfering with those that are getting rid of the Iran Nuclear threat, thereby making the World, including Germany, a safer place!” he wrote on Truth Social.
