U.S. weighs 'reduction' of troops in Germany as Trump's feud with Berlin deepens

trump said thursday the u.s. is considering reducing troops in germany, posting on truth social that a decision would come "over the next short period of time." the u.s. had just over 36,000 active-duty personnel across 20 german bases as of december 2025 — the largest such contingent in europe. many are based at ramstein air base and the grafenwoehr training area. the announcement follows a deepening feud with chancellor friedrich merz, who said earlier this week that the u.s. was being "humiliated" by iran in stalled negotiations. merz told students the iranians were "very skillful at not negotiating." trump hit back, posting that merz seemed to think it was "ok for iran to have a nuclear weapon" and that germany was "doing so poorly." merz later said his personal relationship with trump remained "just as good as before."