Donald Trump is examining troop reductions in Germany.Image: keystone
Donald Trump has announced that the USA is considering troop reductions in Germany. A decision should be made shortly. An overview.
04/30/2026, 05:16April 30, 2026, 05:33
That’s what it’s about
According to President Donald Trump, the USA is specifically considering reducing its troops in Germany. A decision should be made shortly, he wrote on his Truth Social platform. The announcement follows Trump’s tirade against German Chancellor Friedrich Merz because he had previously made critical comments about the US offensive against Iran.
That’s why Trump is mad at Germany
It is not clear whether Trump’s announcement is a well-thought-out strategic consideration or whether the US President is bringing up a troop withdrawal primarily as a threat and thus as a retaliation against German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
The fact is that Trump is upset because Merz recently addressed and criticized the USA’s lack of planning in the Iran war. Merz said that he was “disillusioned” with the actions of the USA and with regard to a possible end to the war soon (see point 5).
Friedrich Merz openly criticized the US actions in the Iran war.Image: keystone
Trump reacted defiantly, even angrily. “He has no idea what he’s talking about!” the US President wrote on Truth Social on Tuesday, referring to the German Chancellor. It is no wonder “that Germany is doing so badly, both economically and in other respects!” He accused the Chancellor of agreeing that Iran had nuclear weapons.
If you take Trump’s recent statements as a benchmark, the personal relationship with Merz seems to have reached a low point. Merz countered this impression on Wednesday and tried to smooth things over. “The personal relationship between the American President and me remains good – at least from my point of view,” he said. “We are still in good discussions with each other.”
What would be the consequences of a US withdrawal?
According to information from the US military in mid-April, around 86,000 soldiers are currently stationed in Europe – around 39,000 of them in Germany. The number changes regularly, also due to rotations and exercises.
During the Cold War, US troops were seen as a security guarantor for the Federal Republic and have become an important economic factor for the regions around the bases. Thousands of local workers are employed by the US military, and thousands more jobs depend on US troops, especially in Rhineland-Palatinate, Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria.
The huge Ramstein air base near Kaiserslautern alone, with the largest US military community outside the United States, is estimated to generate hundreds of millions of euros in wages, salaries, rents and orders in the regional economy every year. The largest US military hospital outside the USA is currently being built near the base.
The US base in Ramstein is the largest in Europe.Image: keystone
But the Americans also benefit massively from their large presence on the Old Continent. There have been dozens of large US military bases in Europe for decades, which are of enormous importance in American missions around the world – for example in the Middle East. They are used to station troops, weapons, ships and aircraft; drones are controlled from there and the injured are also cared for.
In Germany, in addition to the Ramstein airfield in Rhineland-Palatinate, there is also the US High Command for Europe (EUCOM) in Stuttgart. US troops are also stationed in Italy, Great Britain, Poland, Turkey, Spain, the Netherlands and Scandinavia.
At the end of 2025, the US Congress decided on a security mechanism according to which the total number of forces permanently under the European Command’s area of responsibility may not be less than 76,000 for more than 45 days. After that, certain reporting channels would have to be followed in order to achieve a reduction.
Trump has previously threatened to withdraw troops
Trump had already threatened to reduce the troop contingent in Germany during his first term in office (2017 to 2021). A few months before he left the White House, he announced that he wanted to withdraw 12,000 of the 35,000 US soldiers from Germany at the time. Several thousand of them were to be relocated within Europe, while others were to return to the USA. At the time, Trump described the project as punishment for what he saw as insufficient German military spending. His successor Joe Biden then stopped the plans after taking office.
Even during the first year of his second term, Trump occasionally brought up US troop reductions in Europe, particularly in Germany, if he was unhappy with political decisions or statements made by European governments. In general, Trump regularly shows a critical attitude towards politics in Europe.
In the case of Germany, however, things recently seemed to have calmed down. In March, Trump had promised the Chancellor that the USA wanted to maintain its troop presence in Germany. “This is good news, but I didn’t expect it otherwise,” said the CDU chairman in Washington at the time after a meeting with Trump.
The world seemed to be in order: Merz and Trump at the meeting in the White House at the beginning of March.Image: keystone
Relationship between Merz and Trump cracked after criticism
Despite the change in US policy last year, Merz and Trump actually maintained a fairly good relationship with each other for months. However, Merz’s statements regarding the USA’s lack of an exit strategy in the Iran war rubbed Donald Trump the wrong way. Merz said about the reason for the US problems in the war, among other things, in a discussion with students:
“Because the Iranians are obviously stronger than expected and the Americans obviously don’t have a really convincing strategy in the negotiations.”
“The problem with such conflicts is always: you not only have to get in, you also have to get out again. We saw this very painfully in Afghanistan for 20 years. We saw that in Iraq,” the Chancellor continued. This makes it all the more difficult to end the conflict now. “Especially since the Iranians are obviously negotiating very cleverly – or not negotiating very cleverly,” said Merz.
“An entire nation is being humiliated by the Iranian government.”
Meanwhile, Merz is not the first top politician in Europe whom Trump has massively attacked. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron have also fallen out of favor with the Republican. Recently, after the US President’s criticism of the Pope, there was even a clash between him and the Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
con with material from the news agencies sda and dpa.