Donald Trump is pulling out bombers and warships set aside to help NATO, according to a report.
The president is also planning to withdraw fighter jets and refueling aircraft, after becoming incensed by European allies’ refusal to back his war in Iran, Der Spiegel reported.
An envoy of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Alexander Velez-Green, informed senior officials from NATO member states of the withdrawal at a meeting last week in Brussels, Belgium, according to the German outlet.
The number of fighter jets will reduced by a third and the number of strategic bombers halved, Der Spiegel reported.
All submarines will be pulled out, and the destroyer count will also be reduced.
Reconnaissance drones must now be provided and maintained by European countries. There will also be fewer armed drones.
Reuters previously reported, citing three sources, that U.S. officials had been planning to withdraw some of its military capability. The U.S. weapons were placed to help Europe out in the event of a crisis as part of the NATO Force Model, under which member states offer up firepower for immediate mobilization if called upon.
Velez-Green said at the Brussels meeting that allies that worked fast to plug the gaps would enjoy strong cooperation from the U.S., the Daily Mail reported.
Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have become increasingly critical of the world’s most successful and powerful alliance, bemoaning members’ unwillingness to take part in the Iran war and their failure to spend enough of their GDP on defense.
Key members such as Spain and Italy incensed the president, 79, by closing their airspace and air bases to U.S. military aircraft taking part in the bombardment of Iran.
That followed tension created by Trump’s repeated musings about seizing control of Greenland, which belongs to NATO member Denmark.
The pressure from Washington has created concern that it could be considering pulling out of NATO altogether.
The alliance is built on the core principle of collective defense—if one is attacked, all will retaliate—and Trump has suggested he feels his strikes in Iran qualified.
He also bragged that allies would come to his aid to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, after Tehran stunned Washington by closing the narrow waterway through which around one-fifth of the world’s oil supply passes during peacetime.
Its closure has given Iran significant leverage, triggering a global energy crisis and anger from Trump when no NATO members from Western Europe came to assist with his counter-blockade.
The Defense Department said in May it intended to pull 5,000 troops out of Germany.
The same month, Rubio told Fox News host Sean Hannity aboard Air Force One en route to Beijing, China, that he, too, was frustrated by the alliance.
“The problem with NATO, unfortunately—and I’ve been a supporter of NATO throughout my career in the Senate—and one of the reasons I supported NATO is it gave us basing rights,” he said.
“It allowed us to have bases in Europe, that we could use in a contingency, like something in the Middle East, you know, where you could have planes flying from some country in Europe and actually protecting our national interest in the Middle East, as an example, or Africa.
“And so, when you have NATO partners denying you the use of those bases, when the primary reason that NATO is good for America is now being denied to us by Spain, as an example, then what’s the purpose of the alliance?”
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House and the Pentagon for comment.
