Donald Trump is considering withdrawing troops from Germany, according to The Telegraph.
Donald Trump claims that many NATO countries do not pay enough for their defence and that the US would not protect them if they did not pay more.(Photo: Alex Brandon / AP / NTB)
Donald Trump is said to have stated that he wants to move around 35,000 active soldiers out of Germany.
A source from the White House told The Telegraph that Trump is frustrated that Europe is not contributing sufficiently to its own defence and believes they are "pushing for war."
A spokesman for the US National Security Council, Brian Hughes, reportedly told the newspaper that "while no specific announcement is imminent, the US military is always considering the redeployment of troops around the world to best address current threats to our interests.”
Said the same in 2020
The last time the American president talked about withdrawing military troops from Germany was in 2020.
At that time, the plan was to bring 6,400 soldiers home and relocate 5,600 from Germany to other places in Europe, according to AP News.
Trump has previously criticised Germany for not contributing enough to NATO. The criticism revolves around Germany not meeting the goal of allocating 2 per cent of its gross domestic product (GDP) to defence.
However, the relocation plans were not implemented before Joe Biden took over in 2021. At that point, the withdrawal from Germany was put on hold.
A business-like approach
"Donald Trump is showing that this is the American way of doing things," Bjørn Olav Knutsen tells sciencenorway.no.
He is chief researcher at the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment.
"He's in the process of playing the European countries against each other," says Knutsen.
Trump has a business-like approach to security policy, and this is what we are witnessing now, according to Knutsen. Among other things, he makes decisions without consulting his allies.
"It comes as a shock to us in Europe, as we are used to operating within frameworks and intuitions like the EU and NATO," he says.
Must take greater responsibility for security
Why Trump is doing this now is something Knutsen has no opinion on yet.
"We'll see in the time ahead. And then we'll find out whether NATO can survive this," he says.
Regardless, Knutsen believes it is obvious that Europe must take far greater responsibility for its own security.
Bjørn Olav Knutsen researches European and transatlantic security policy at the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment.(Photo: Norwegian Defence Research Establishment)
Why Hungary?
Annonse
According to The Telegraph, the president is considering withdrawing military forces from Germany and relocating them to Hungary.
Knutsen believes this may be because Donald Trump and Viktor Orbán are politically close. National politics is what matters most to them.
"Both are sceptical of international cooperation. Orbán proved this when he voted against increasing support for Ukraine at last week's EU meeting," he says.
At an EU meeting in Brussels last week, the Hungarian prime minister vetoed a proposal that would have required countries to commit to increasing support for Ukraine.
The agreement was signed by all the other member countries – except for Hungary.
