Trump vows to reduce U.S. troops in Germany “a lot further” than 5,000 as defense official says armed services were blindsided by move

President Donald Trump said on Saturday that the U.S. will significantly reduce its troop presence in Germany, escalating a dispute with Chancellor Friedrich Merz as he seeks to scale back America’s commitment to European security.

The Pentagon on Friday had initially announced it would pull some 5,000 troops out of Germany, but when asked Saturday about the reason for the move, Trump didn’t offer an explanation and said an even bigger reduction was coming.

“We’re going to cut way down. And we’re cutting a lot further than 5,000,” Trump told reporters in Florida.

Earlier on Saturday, Germany’s defense minister appeared to take in stride the news that 5,000 U.S. troops would be leaving his country.

Read more: [https://fortune.com/2026/05/02/trump-us-troops-germany-a-lot-further-5000-nato-europe-force-posture/](https://fortune.com/2026/05/02/trump-us-troops-germany-a-lot-further-5000-nato-europe-force-posture/)

ok..how terrible. Maybe we can scale back all the money spent on weapons and invading other countries too? thats the goal right, not just continual endless wars that profits certain industries and people.

I wonder where they are being deployed to instead.

Then maybe our capacity to act as the U.S’s air hub for the Iran War just went down. Real shame, that.

Who really cares…

Germans: “Fine don’t really want them anyway.”
Americans: “Fine foreign bases are expensive.”

These troops like it in Germany. Free adventure in the Military.