The United States is withdrawing 5,000 troops from Nato ally Germany, the Pentagon announced on Friday, as a rift over the Iran war widens between President Donald Trump and Europe.
Trump had threatened a drawdown in forces earlier this week after sparring with German chancellor Friedrich Merz, who said on Monday the Iranians were humiliating the US in talks to end the two-month-old war.
A senior Pentagon official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said recent German rhetoric had been “inappropriate and unhelpful.”
“The president is rightly reacting to these counterproductive remarks,” the official said.
Germany is the US military’s biggest basing location in Europe, serving as a key training hub with more than 35,000 active-duty military personnel.
Trump has cracked down on Nato allies for not sending their navies to help open the Strait of Hormuz during the conflict, threatening “horrible” Spain and condemning Italy.
The waterway, a chokepoint for global oil shipments, has remained virtually shut, causing market turmoil and unprecedented disruption in energy supplies.
The US Navy is currently blocking exports of Iranian crude oil. On Friday the US treasury told shippers that they risked sanctions if they paid tolls to Iran to pass through the Strait.
Merz has been critical of the US and Israeli attack on Iran, saying on Monday that US officials were travelling to Pakistan and leaving without results.
“An entire nation is being humiliated by the Iranian leadership, especially by these so-called Revolutionary Guards. And so I hope that this ends as quickly as possible,” he said.
“The Iranians are obviously very skilled at negotiating, or rather, very skillful at not negotiating, letting the Americans travel to Islamabad and then leave again without any result.”
He also said he did not see what exit strategy the US was pursuing in the Iran war – comments that underlined deep divisions between Washington and its European Nato allies, amid growing tension over Ukraine and tariffs.
Trump said on Thursday in a Truth Social rant that Merz should focus more on ending the war in Ukraine and “his broken Country” than interfering with negotiations.
“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!”
On Friday, Trump said he would increase tariffs on cars and trucks from the European Union to 25 per cent next week from the previously agreed 15 per cent, a move that will hit Germany hardest.
The Pentagon said the withdrawal was expected to be completed over the next six to twelve months. The drawdown is expected to bring US troop levels in Europe back to roughly pre-2022 levels, before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine triggered a buildup by then-president Joe Biden.
A brigade combat team will be pulled out of Germany, and a long-range fires battalion that the Biden administration had planned to begin deploying to Germany later this year, will no longer move the official said.
