Trump to halve US troops in key NATO ally Germany

by Sebastian Smith

President Donald Trump said Monday he will halve the number of US troops in Germany because Berlin is “delinquent” in contributions to NATO and treats the United States “badly” on trade.

Trump told reporters there are 52,000 US soldiers stationed in Germany and he will bring this to 25,000.

“It’s a tremendous cost to the United States,” he said. “So we’re removing a number down to, we’re putting the number down to 25,000 soldiers.”

Trump’s numbers were misleading because there are only between 34,000 and 35,000 US soldiers permanently stationed in Germany, according to the Pentagon. Rotation of units means the overall number can only temporarily top 50,000.

However, the US president’s message to Germany, Europe and the US-led NATO alliance was loud and clear.

US troops have been stationed in the geopolitically vital country since the end of World War II, forming the bulk of NATO’s conventional defense against the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

The resurgence of Russia’s military ambitions under President Vladimir Putin has given the US presence new importance in the last two decades, with central and eastern European states leading the way in pressuring for stronger US defenses.

Trump said he wanted to punish what he said were Germany’s insufficient payments to NATO and to use the troops’ future as a weapon to back up his threats of a trade war with the European Union.

“Germany’s delinquent, they’ve been delinquent for years and they owe NATO billions of dollars, and they have to pay it. So we’re protecting Germany and they’re delinquent. That doesn’t make sense,” he said. (AFP)