Trump reviewing US troop reduction in Germany after Merz criticises Iran approach

The US is "studying" whether to reduce the thousands of troops it has stationed in Germany, Donald Trump has announced via social media. It comes just days after German Chancellor Friedrich Merz criticised his approach to the war in Iran, suggesting that US had been "humiliated" by Iranian negotiators.

In his post, Trump said he was "studying and reviewing the possible reduction of Troops in Germany, with a determination to be made over the next short period of time." The US has a significant military presence in Germany, with more than 36,000 active duty troops assigned to bases across the country as of last December.

Merz made his initial remarks on Monday in an address to university students in Marsberg, telling them that "the Americans clearly have no strategy". "The Iranians are obviously very skilled at negotiating, or rather, very skilful at not negotiating, letting the Americans travel to Islamabad and then leave again without any result," he said.

Trump responded the following day with a post to Truth Social, where he said Merz thought it was "OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon" and "doesn't know what he's talking about." When asked about the post in a press conference on Wednesday, Merz said the "personal relationship between the American president and myself remains just as good as before."

The US military deployment in Germany is by far its biggest in Europe, with about 12,000 troops in Italy and a further 10,000 in the UK. Many are stationed at the big Ramstein air base outside the southwestern German city of Kaiserslautern.

And while Trump has proposed US troop reductions in Germany before, they have so far not come into effect. In 2020, a proposal to move 12,000 US troops from Germany either to other Nato countries in Europe or back to the US, was blocked by Congress and then reversed by President Joe Biden. At the time, Trump had accused Germany of being "delinquent" because its military spending was well below Nato's target of 2% of economic output (GDP).

But that has changed dramatically under the Merz government: Germany is projected to spend €105.8bn (£91bn) in 2027 - with total defence expenditure next year set to reach 3.1% of GDP. Merz said after talks with Trump in Washington in March that Trump had assured him the US would maintain its military presence in Germany, adding that he had not expected anything else.

However, while Merz has this week complained of the economic consequences for Europe of the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, Trump has been angered by the response of Nato allies in Europe to the war in Iran. Earlier in April, a leaked internal Pentagon email detailed potential measures for the US to punish allies it believed had failed to support its campaign in Iran, including a suggestion that the US could seek to suspend Spain from Nato over its stance.