President Donald Trump raised the idea of cutting American forces in Europe by roughly a third during a White House meeting this spring, angered that NATO allies had refused to join his military campaign against Iran, CNN reported on Tuesday, as Trump landed in Ankara for the alliance’s high-stakes annual summit.
The musing follows concrete steps already taken. In May, Trump withdrew 5,000 troops from Germany and cancelled plans to deploy a deep precision strike battalion, reducing Brigade Combat Teams in Europe from four to three. Last week, the US halted a planned rotation of more than 4,000 troops heading to Poland. Around 80,000 American soldiers remain in Europe in total, CNN reports.
A full third reduction would take US forces below the 76,000-soldier floor set by Section 1249 of the National Defense Authorization Act for 2026, which requires the president to certify the cuts are in the national interest, consult NATO allies and submit a detailed report to Congress before any reduction lasting more than 45 days. Congress broadly opposes troop cuts, with a June 2026 Chicago Council poll finding 60% of Americans support maintaining or increasing US troops in Germany and 63% in Poland.
Trump told Secretary General Mark Rutte in the Oval Office he simply wanted allied loyalty, saying the US did not need European money or anything else. Rutte brought charts crediting Trump personally for the rise in NATO defence spending, describing the increase as the Trump trillion. The summit in Ankara runs July 7 and 8 with NATO 3.0, Hormuz access and European defence spending on the agenda.
