Donald Trump is winding down the military resources the United States has long set aside to assist allied countries in the event any one of them faces a major crisis, like coming under attack.
His administration intends to inform NATO partners later this week that the U.S. will “shrink the pool of military capabilities” it otherwise has on standby in Europe, three sources with knowledge of the president’s thinking told Reuters on Tuesday.
The outlet notes that the exact nature and composition of the U.S. forces due to be wound down remains top secret. It nevertheless comes as the president seeks to cool U.S. commitments to the alliance in retribution for what he feels is a lack of support for his war with Iran.
Reuters reports that Trump expects European partners to assume “primary responsibility for the continent’s security.” Details of the plan, such as how exactly the Pentagon will structure that handover, remain unclear.
Defense Department officials have publicly stressed that the U.S. is still committed to ensuring a nuclear deterrent to attacks on Europe, even as the administration seeks to hand conventional defense over to members on the continent.
D.C.’s relations with NATO, a mutual security alliance of which the U.S. is a founding member, have come under precedent-busting pressure since Trump returned to the White House last year.
The president has long been a critic of the alliance, claiming the U.S. relationship with other members is a one-way street that has disproportionately benefited allies at the expense of the U.S.
NATO plunged into a historically unprecedented crisis in January after Trump appeared to be seriously weighing threats, made throughout last year, of seizing Greenland, an autonomous territory of NATO member Denmark, by force if necessary.
A frenzy of diplomatic efforts appear to have put those threats on the back burner for now. But Trump has since rekindled his anger toward the alliance after member states refused to back his war with Iran, which he launched Feb. 28.
The president has upped his rhetorical attacks in response, dismissing the alliance as a “paper tiger” and warning there would be consequences for not coming to the aid of the U.S. in the conflict.
Trump has particularly targeted British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, whom he has dubbed “no Churchill,” and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who refused to even allow Washington to make use of military bases in Spain, several thousand miles from the theater of Trump’s war.
He has threatened to reassess U.S. diplomatic support for U.K. claims to the Falkland Islands, while confusingly threatening to expel Spain from the alliance, despite the fact that no formal mechanism exists for doing so.
The Pentagon has meanwhile announced it will pull 5,000 troops out of Germany in the wake of comments from Chancellor Friedrich Merz about how Tehran has “humiliated” the U.S. with its resistance to Trump’s war.
Trump has publicly floated the possibility of extending that drawdown to Italy and Spain, while further threatening to suspend “difficult” countries from important or prestigious positions in NATO.
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House and the Pentagon for comment on this story.
