WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump issued a new threat to NATO ally Germany on Wednesday, suggesting he may soon reduce the U.S. military presence there as he continued his feud with Chancellor Friedrich Mertz over the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran.
Trump’s threat came after Mertz said earlier this week that the United States had been “humiliated” by Iran’s leaders and criticized Washington’s lack of strategy in the war. Trump has also repeatedly accused NATO of refusing to assist the United States in the two-month war.
Trump posted on social media that “the United States is studying and reviewing the possibility of reducing the number of troops stationed in Germany and will make a decision in the short term.”
Mertz said earlier Wednesday that his personal relationship with Trump was “as good as ever” but that he had “questions from the beginning about what was going on with the Iran war.”
During his first term in the White House, Trump also took action to cut U.S. troops in Germany because he said the country spent too little on defense.
In June 2020, Trump announced that he would withdraw about 9,500 of the approximately 34,500 U.S. troops then stationed in Germany, but the process never really started. Democratic President Joe Biden officially halted troop withdrawal plans shortly after taking office in 2021.
The United States maintains several major military installations domestically, including the headquarters of U.S. European Command and U.S. Africa Command, Ramstein Air Force Base, and Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, the largest U.S. hospital outside the United States.
Mertz met with Trump at the White House in March, just days after the United States and Israel began bombing Iran. At the time, Mertz told Trump that Germany was eager to work with the United States on a strategy in which the current Iranian government ceased to exist. Mertz also expressed concern that a protracted conflict could cause huge damage to the global economy.
Like many other European leaders, his concerns are only growing as the United States and Iran have yet to reach an agreement to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Before the war began, the Strait of Hormuz was an important waterway for about 20% of the world’s oil supply. It has been effectively closed since the conflict began on February 28.
“We are suffering huge losses in Germany and Europe from consequences such as the closure of the Strait of Hormuz,” Mertz said on Wednesday, hours before Trump issued the threat on social media. “In this regard, I urge a resolution of this conflict.”
Mertz added that his administration has a “good relationship” with the Trump administration.
Trump, for his part, did little to contain his frustration with Meltz.
On Tuesday, he wrote: “German Chancellor Friedrich Merz thinks it’s OK for Iran to have nuclear weapons. He doesn’t know what he’s talking about!” Trump added, “It’s no surprise that Germany is doing so poorly, economically and otherwise!”
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Associated Press writer Pietro de Cristofaro reported from Berlin.
