WASHINGTON — Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE), a retired Air Force brigadier general and member of the House Armed Services Committee, threw his public support behind a sharp warning from Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk on May 2 — the same day the Pentagon confirmed it would withdraw approximately 5,000 troops from Germany over the next six to twelve months.
“Our Polish ally speaks the truth,” Bacon wrote on X, directly endorsing Tusk’s post.
Tusk had written: “The greatest threat to the transatlantic community are not its external enemies, but the ongoing disintegration of our alliance. We must all do what it takes to reverse this disastrous trend.”
What Prompted Tusk’s Statement
Tusk’s warning was a direct response to the Pentagon’s May 2 announcement that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had ordered the withdrawal of roughly 5,000 U.S. troops from Germany — approximately 14 percent of the 36,000 American service members stationed there — to be completed within six to twelve months, according to the Associated Press via NPR.
“This decision follows a thorough review of the Department’s force posture in Europe and is in recognition of theater requirements and conditions on the ground,” Chief Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement. “We expect the withdrawal to be completed over the next six to twelve months.”
The Pentagon did not address what would happen to the approximately 30,000 troops remaining in Germany, or whether the withdrawal would affect U.S. forces in other NATO countries, according to Breaking Defense, which first confirmed the order.
Why Germany Matters Strategically
Germany is not simply another NATO basing country. It is the logistical and command spine of the entire U.S. military presence in Europe and Africa. Germany hosts the headquarters of both U.S. European Command and U.S. Africa Command — the two combatant commands responsible for American military operations across the entire European and African theaters — as well as Ramstein Air Base, the largest U.S. Air Force installation outside the continental United States and a critical transit hub for personnel, equipment, and casualty evacuation, according to the U.S. Army Europe and Africa Command.
Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, also in Germany, served as the primary trauma center for American casualties from both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and remains the most capable U.S. military medical facility in the European theater. U.S. tactical nuclear weapons are also stored at Büchel Air Base in Germany as part of NATO’s nuclear sharing arrangements — a posture that has underpinned European deterrence since the Cold War.
Depending on operations, exercises, and troop rotations, between 80,000 and 100,000 U.S. military personnel are typically stationed across Europe as a whole. At the Cold War’s peak in the 1980s, that number exceeded 300,000. The drawdown since then has been managed carefully to preserve deterrence while reducing cost — but analysts note that the remaining presence retains an outsized strategic value precisely because of the command infrastructure, logistics networks, and interoperability built up over eight decades, according to the U.S. Army Europe and Africa Command.
The Feud Behind the Decision
The withdrawal did not emerge from a strategic review — it emerged from a public argument. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said publicly that the United States was being “humiliated” by Iranian leadership and criticized Washington for lacking a clear strategy in the ongoing war. Trump responded angrily on social media Wednesday, writing that the U.S. was reviewing possible troop reductions in Germany with a “determination” to be made soon. On Thursday he posted that Merz should “spend more time on ending the war with Russia/Ukraine” and “fixing his broken Country” than concerning himself with Iran. By Friday, the Pentagon formalized the withdrawal.
Trump ignored questions from reporters about the withdrawal on Friday as he boarded Air Force One in Ocala, Florida. It is not the first time he has threatened to pull troops from Germany. In his first term he ordered the withdrawal of approximately 9,500 troops, but never completed the process — President Biden formally reversed the order soon after taking office in 2021.
Congressional and NATO Reaction
The announcement drew swift pushback from both parties and from within NATO itself. Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI), ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the move “suggests American commitments to our allies are dependent on the president’s mood” and called on Trump to “immediately cease this reckless action before he causes irreversible consequences for our alliances and long-term national security.”
Bradley Bowman, a scholar at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said the U.S. military presence in Germany and elsewhere in Europe “not only strengthens deterrence against additional Kremlin aggression but also facilitates the projection of American military power into the Mediterranean, the Middle East, and Africa.” The withdrawal of 5,000 troops, Bowman argued, directly undermines that capacity.
NATO said it was working to understand the details. “NATO is working with the US to understand the details of their decision on force posture in Germany,” NATO spokesperson Allison Hart said in a statement.
Ed Arnold, a European security expert at the Royal United Services Institute in London, noted that European allies are at least as concerned about the U.S. redeployment of Patriot missile systems and ammunition from Germany to the Middle East as they are about troop numbers — a capability gap that is more immediately pressing for NATO’s air defense posture than the infantry headcount.
The withdrawal is also not occurring in isolation. In October 2025, the U.S. confirmed it would reduce its troop presence on NATO’s borders with Ukraine, cutting 1,500 to 3,000 troops on short notice — a move that unsettled Romania, where the military alliance runs a major air base. The Germany announcement is the second significant U.S. force reduction in Europe in less than a year.
Poland’s Role — and Why Bacon’s Endorsement of Tusk Matters
Poland, which Tusk leads, occupies a unique position in the NATO debate. It currently hosts approximately 10,000 U.S. troops — a presence that expanded significantly after Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine — and has committed to spending 5 percent of its GDP on defense, the highest share of any NATO member. Warsaw has been among the most consistent advocates for a larger and more permanent American military footprint on Europe’s eastern flank, arguing that the alliance’s deterrence credibility depends on physical presence, not just political commitments.
Bacon’s willingness to publicly align with Tusk — a European center-right prime minister criticizing the direction of U.S. foreign policy — carries real weight. As a retired Air Force brigadier general who served as a NATO commander and flew more than 3,700 flight hours, Bacon brings both institutional credibility and direct alliance experience to the debate. His position on the House Armed Services Committee gives him a platform, and his Nebraska district includes Offutt Air Force Base — home of U.S. Strategic Command, one of the combatant commands that depends most directly on the European basing network to project global power.
That Bacon is willing to side publicly with Tusk on the day the Pentagon announces the Germany withdrawal is a signal that the Republican coalition on NATO is not monolithic — and that for some defense-oriented Republicans, the concern about alliance cohesion outweighs the impulse to back the administration’s posture toward Europe.