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The Pentagon announced Friday it plans to pull 5,000 troops out of Germany, as a rift widens between Europe and U.S. President Donald Trump on the war in Iran.
The Pentagon said the withdrawal was expected to be completed over the next six to twelve months.
Trump had threatened a drawdown in forces earlier this week after sparring with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who said on Monday the Iranians were humiliating the U.S. in talks to end the two-month-old war.
A senior Pentagon official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said recent German rhetoric had been, quote, "inappropriate and unhelpful."
The official said the drawdown would bring numbers back to roughly pre-2022 levels, before President Joe Biden's buildup following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
They said a brigade combat team now in Germany will leave, and a long-range fires battalion that had been set to deploy there later this year would now no longer do so.
Trump has singled out Germany even as he has harshly criticized other NATO allies for not sending their navies to help open the Strait of Hormuz during the Iran conflict.
Germany hosts around 35,000 U.S. troops, the largest American military presence in Europe.
