FILE – President Donald Trump meets with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in the Oval Office of the White House on March 3, 2026 in Washington.
Mark Schiefelbein/AP
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Mark Schiefelbein/AP
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump issued a new threat Wednesday against NATO ally Germany, suggesting he may soon reduce the U.S. military presence there as he continues to feud with Chancellor Friedrich Mertz over a U.S.-Israeli war against Iran.
Trump made the threat after Meraz said earlier this week that the US was being “humiliated” by the Iranian leadership and criticized Washington’s lack of strategy in the war. Trump has also repeatedly criticized NATO for the alliance’s refusal to assist the US in the two-month-old war.
“The United States is studying and reviewing possible troop reductions in Germany, which will be implemented in the next short period of time,” Trump said in a social media post.
Merz said earlier Wednesday that his personal relationship with Trump remains “as good as ever” but that he was “suspicious from the beginning about the incident that started with the war in Iran.”
During his first term in the White House, Trump also moved to cut US troops in Germany because he said the country spends too little on defense.
In June 2020, Trump announced that he was going to withdraw about 9,500 of the approximately 34,500 US troops deployed in Germany, but the process never actually started. Democratic President Joe Biden formally halted the planned withdrawal soon after taking office in 2021.
The US has several major military facilities in the country, including the headquarters of US European Command and US Africa Command, Ramstein Air Base, and Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, the largest US hospital outside the United States.
Meraz met with Trump at the White House just days after the US and Israel began bombing Iran in March. At the time, Merz told Trump that Germany was eager to work with the US on a strategy for a time when the current Iranian government would no longer exist. Merz also expressed concern that an extended conflict could cause great damage to the global economy.
His concern, like that of many other European leaders, is only heightened because the US and Iran have not yet come to an agreement to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the vital waterway through which about 20% of the world’s global oil supply flowed before the war began. It has been effectively closed since the conflict began on February 28.
“For example, we are suffering greatly in Germany and Europe from the consequences of closing the Strait of Hormuz,” Merz said Wednesday, hours before Trump posted his threat on social media. “And in that regard, I urge that this conflict be resolved.”
Merz said his government is “in good talks” with the Trump administration.
Trump, for his part, is hardly containing his frustration with Merz.
On Tuesday, he wrote: “The Chancellor of Germany, Friedrich Merz, thinks it’s OK for Iran to have nuclear weapons. He doesn’t know what he’s talking about!” Trump said it was no surprise that “Germany is doing so poorly economically and in other matters!”
