President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that the United States is reviewing whether to reduce its military forces stationed in Germany, posting a terse statement on Truth Social that came hours after a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin and amid a deepening rift with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz over the Iran war.
“The United States is studying and reviewing the possible reduction of Troops in Germany, with a determination to be made over the next short period of time,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Wednesday afternoon. “Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J. TRUMP”
The post did not specify what size reduction is under consideration, which bases or units would be affected, or what criteria would guide the decision.
The Merz Provocation
The announcement followed days of escalating public friction between Washington and Berlin over the Iran war. On Monday, Merz told German students that the United States was being “humiliated by the Iranian leadership” — a pointed reference to the failed second round of indirect peace talks in Islamabad, where special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner had been expected to meet with Iranian counterparts before Trump abruptly canceled the trip. Trump responded by criticizing Merz publicly on Tuesday.
On Wednesday, Merz sought to soften the tension without walking back his criticism. “From my perspective, my personal relationship with the U.S. President remains good,” Merz told reporters. “I simply had doubts from the start about what was begun with the war in Iran. That is why I have made that clear.”
The Trump administration has also more broadly criticized NATO allies for declining to contribute forces to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz, which remains largely closed to international shipping despite a ceasefire, and for opposing the U.S.-Israeli military campaign against Iran.
Germany Hosts 36,000 U.S. Troops — The Most in Europe
Germany currently hosts approximately 36,436 active-duty U.S. troops, making it the country with the second-largest American military presence in the world after Japan, according to USAFacts. U.S. forces in Germany anchor NATO’s European posture and serve as a critical logistics hub for deployments across Europe and the Middle East, operating out of installations including Ramstein Air Base, Grafenwöhr Training Area, and Landstuhl Regional Medical Center — the U.S. military’s largest overseas hospital.
During Trump’s first term, he ordered plans for a significant drawdown from Germany, proposing to cap U.S. forces there at 25,000 — a reduction of roughly 10,000 troops — in part as retaliation for Germany’s failure to meet NATO’s two-percent-of-GDP defense spending target. Those plans were paused under the Biden administration. Germany has since surpassed the NATO spending threshold, committing more than two percent of GDP to defense following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
The Putin Call
Trump’s Truth Social post came the same day he spoke by phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin, a call described by Putin’s foreign policy aide Yury Ushakov as “frank and businesslike” and lasting more than an hour and a half. Ushakov said Putin strongly condemned a recent assassination attempt against Trump and that the two leaders agreed to stay in touch through personal conversations and aide-level talks. The proximity of the troop announcement to the Putin call drew immediate notice from European officials and analysts tracking the administration’s Russia posture.
NATO Implications
Any reduction in U.S. troop levels in Germany would reverberate across the alliance. Eastern European NATO members — particularly Poland and the Baltic states — have pressed Washington in recent months to maintain and expand its European military presence, citing Russian aggression in Ukraine and what they describe as an increasingly unstable security environment on the continent. A unilateral drawdown, analysts say, would raise fundamental questions about the credibility of Article 5 collective defense guarantees at a moment when the alliance is already under strain from the Iran war and transatlantic disagreements over how to prosecute it.
The White House did not provide additional detail on the scope or timeline of the review at the time of publication.