BERLIN — While President Donald Trump fired off a series of social media posts criticizing Germany last week, including a threat to withdraw some American troops from the country, German leaders did not publicly demonstrate that they believed the president was serious.
It now appears that this was a miscalculation — one of several that German leaders have made over the course of Trump’s war on Iran — but probably not a catastrophic one for German security.
Pentagon officials said Friday that and to other countries next year.
U.S. and German officials suggested the decision had already been discussed at a political level for months as part of a broader Pentagon review of its troop levels around the world, but the announcement was significantly accelerated to appease a president angered by German criticism of American strategy in Iran.
Boris Pistorius, German Defense Minister, called the move “predictable” in a statement on Saturday morning, which was otherwise unyielding.
“The presence of American troops in Europe, and especially in Germany, is in our interests and in the interests of the United States,” Pistorius said. He also stated that Europeans must continue to take more responsibility for their own security.
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and other European countries for not contributing more to the war effort against Iran, as he demanded. The president also bristled at criticism of his handling of the war and suggestions that the American effort had not been successful.
On Monday, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz told high school students that the United States has “no strategy” to end the war and that
The Pentagon is preparing to withdraw a combat brigade that was stationed in Germany after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and whose stay was never guaranteed. It will also no longer continue the Biden administration’s plan to station a battalion of medium-range missiles in Germany. The end result, if these plans are followed, will be a return to the level of American troops stationed in Germany prior to the start of the war in Ukraine.
German officials have made clear in private conversations that the proposed withdrawals could have been significantly worse, from their point of view, and that their response to the announcement would be measured. The notoriously fickle Trump can always change his mind.
Before Friday’s announcement, the Pentagon had not warned German leaders that an announcement on troop withdrawals was imminent. The consensus in German politics seemed to be that Trump was probably bluffing. He had tried unsuccessfully to withdraw some of the approximately 35,000 American troops from Germany at the end of his first term. He would need congressional approval to withdraw troops from Europe now.
In March, when Merz visited Trump in Washington, the chancellor told reporters at a German-language press conference that the president “also assured me, not just today but again, that the United States will maintain its military presence in Germany.”
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German leaders were also confident that the Trump administration needed a German military presence. Unlike some other European allies, Germany allowed the United States to help launch attacks against Iran from bases within its borders. The country continued to allow injured Americans to be treated at a major American hospital on German soil, which for decades has housed Americans injured in wars, including in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Germany’s discreet indifference to the possibility of a troop withdrawal was reflected again last week.
Merz did not offer a public apology or retract his apparently off-the-cuff comments made at the school.
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On Thursday, Merz, who has invested heavily in building a good relationship with Trump over the past year, told German soldiers in the city of Münster that “we maintain close and trusting contact with our partners, including and especially in Washington.” He emphasized that the relationship with Washington was based on mutual respect and the fair sharing of security burdens.
“This transatlantic partnership is especially important to us, and to me personally,” he said.
Merz Vice Chancellor Lars Klingbeil further raised tensions on Friday.
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In a Labor Day speech, Klingbeil defended Merz from the president’s criticism. “We really don’t need any advice from Donald Trump right now,” Klingbeil said. “He should see what a mess he made” of the war, he added.
Klingbeil leads the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD), a junior partner in the governing coalition led by Merz’s center-right Christian Democrats (CDU). He has been more critical of Trump in the past than Merz. He has also been traveling with Merz in Münster and has been in frequent contact with him on a number of internal issues recently.
Trump has constantly surprised German leaders with his conduct of the war. After Merz’s meeting with the president in March, some officials were convinced that the conflict would not last long, as Trump had already expressed concern about the economic effects of war-related energy price spikes.
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Instead, Trump persisted with the attacks even after gasoline and natural gas prices rose sharply due to Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
German officials also believed they had found something of an agreement with the president over his demands that Europe send military resources to secure the strait and make it safe for navigation again.
Merz repeatedly stated that Germany would participate in this security effort, including sending minesweeper ships, but only under two conditions: the Germans wanted a permanent ceasefire, as opposed to the temporary one in place. And, to comply with the German Constitution, they wanted the effort to have the approval of an international body, such as the United Nations or the European Union.
Apparently, that wasn’t enough for Trump. On Friday, a Pentagon official didn’t just cite Merz’s comments as the reason for the troop withdrawal. The official also cited Germany’s failure to contribute to the war effort in Iran.
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