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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth testifies at a House Appropriations subcommittee budget hearing for the Department of Defense, Tuesday, May 12, 2026, in Washington, as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine listens.<\/p>\n
Alex Brandon\/AP<\/p>\n
Gen. Christopher LaNeve, acting Army chief of staff, testifies before the House Armed Services Committee hearing on the budget request of the Department of the Army, on Capitol Hill, Friday, May 15, 2026, in Washington.<\/p>\n
Manuel Balce Ceneta\/AP Photo\/Manuel Balce Ceneta<\/p>\n
WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 The Pentagon is drawing down thousands of troops in Europe by canceling deployments to Poland and Germany as opposed to yanking forces already stationed there, U.S. officials say, as President Donald Trump has tussled with allies over the Iran war and called for changes.<\/p>\n
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Several U.S. officials confirmed that 4,000 troops from the Army’s 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division were no longer en route to Poland this week. The Trump administration had previously said it was cutting U.S. forces only in Germany, and the decision spurred questions and criticism in both Warsaw and Washington.<\/p>\n
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Two officials told The Associated Press that the deployments were canceled after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth signed a memo directing the Joint Chiefs of Staff to move a brigade combat team out of Europe. One of them said the choice of which unit was left to military leaders.<\/p>\n
Besides the Army combat team based in Fort Hood, Texas, the memo also led to the cancellation of an upcoming deployment to Germany of a battalion trained in firing long-range rockets and missiles, according to the two officials, who like the others spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military operations.<\/p>\n
Three U.S. officials said the changes were part of an effort to comply with a presidential order issued at the beginning of May to reduce the number of troops in Europe by about 5,000. The reasoning does not appear to have been well communicated because others based in Europe said they did not know if the halted deployment to Poland was part of the previously announced reduction.<\/p>\n
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Trump and the Pentagon have said in recent weeks that they were cutting at least 5,000 troops to Germany after Chancellor Friedrich Merz said the U.S. was being \u201chumiliated\u201d by the Iranian leadership and criticized Washington\u2019s lack of strategy in the war.<\/p>\n
The drawdown reflects a growing rift between the administration and traditional European allies, with the U.S. leader repeatedly criticizing fellow NATO members for a lack of support for the Iran war.<\/p>\n
Polish officials on Friday insisted that the U.S. withdrawal was not targeted directly at Poland but was a consequence of Trump\u2019s decision to reduce the number of troops in Germany.<\/p>\n
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Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said he \u201creceived assurances\u201d that the decision was of a logistical nature and said it does not directly impact deterrence capabilities and Poland\u2019s security.<\/p>\n
Military officials say the decision to halt unit to Poland made recently<\/p>\n
Joel Valdez, a Pentagon spokesman, said \u201cthe decision to withdraw troops follows a comprehensive, multilayered process\u201d and he argued that it was \u201cnot an unexpected, last-minute decision.\u201d<\/p>\n
Speaking to Congress in a hearing Friday, Army Secretary Dan Driscoll and Gen. Christopher LaNeve, the Army\u2019s chief of staff, told lawmakers that discussions around the halted deployment occurred over the past two weeks but noted the decision itself was made in the past couple days.<\/p>\n
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Republican Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska said he spoke with Polish officials on Thursday and they noted they were \u201cblindsided.\u201d<\/p>\n
The move also left many U.S. military personnel in Europe in the dark about how the Trump administration was reducing forces. A U.S. official based in Europe said a meeting was called with 20 minutes notice on Monday to discuss the cancellation of the deployment to Poland.<\/p>\n
At that time, troops had already been sent to Poland and some, still in the U.S., were told shortly before departure not to travel to the airport, that official said. Another official said most of the Army unit\u2019s equipment had already made it to Europe and was sitting in ports.<\/p>\n
Change to troop deployment to Poland draws bipartisan criticism <\/p>\n
The reductions drew criticism from Democratic and Republican lawmakers about the move sending the wrong signal both to allies and Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose forces this week have launched one of the deadliest attacks on the Ukrainian capital in the 4-year-old war.<\/p>\n
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At the House Armed Services Committee hearing Friday, LaNeve said he worked with U.S. Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, commander in Europe of both U.S. and NATO forces, after Grynkewich received the instructions for the force reduction.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve worked with him in close consultation of what that force unit would be, and it made the most sense for that brigade to not do its deployment in theater,\u201d LaNeve said.<\/p>\n
Bacon called the decision \u201creprehensible\u201d and said it was \u201can embarrassment to our country what we just did to Poland.\u201d<\/p>\n
Republican Rep. Mike Rogers of Alabama, who chairs the committee, said the military is required to consult with lawmakers and that did not happen.<\/p>\n
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\u201cSo we don\u2019t know what\u2019s going on here,\u201d Rogers said. “But I can just tell you we\u2019re not happy with what\u2019s being talked about.\u201d<\/p>\n
A State Department official said Friday at a security conference in Tallinn, Estonia, that the U.S. reductions in Europe were \u201cright there in black and white\u201d but also noted that \u201cthe U.S. isn\u2019t going anywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll continue to work with the Pentagon and work with our partners to make sure we get the right fit and right mix of what\u2019s happening here on the ground,\u201d said Thomas G. DiNanno, U.S. undersecretary of state for arms control and international security.<\/p>\n
NATO says the change in Poland won’t affect defense<\/p>\n
With the halted deployments, the U.S. military presence in Europe will now be at pre-2022 levels, before Russia commenced its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, one U.S. official said.<\/p>\n
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European countries have been bracing for a U.S. reduction since Trump returned to the White House, with the administration warning that Europe would have to look after its own security, including Ukraine’s, in the future.<\/p>\n
A NATO official said the U.S. decision to cancel its rotational deployment to Poland would not impact NATO’s deterrence and defense plans. Canada and Germany have increased their presence on the alliance’s eastern flank, which contributes to NATO’s overall strength, the official said, insisting on anonymity in line with NATO regulations.<\/p>\n
Ben Hodges, former commanding general of U.S. Army Europe, said the move \u201creinforces the perception that the United States just does things without consultation with allies,\u201d which ultimately \u201cdamages cohesion inside the alliance.\u201d The decision would in the long run harm the U.S. defense industry as it reduces the trust of partners, he said.<\/p>\n
Around 10,000 U.S. troops are typically stationed in Poland, the majority of them present in the country on a rotational basis. Only about 300 troops are permanently stationed in the country, according to the U.S. Congressional Research Service.<\/p>\n
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Polish officials had hoped they would be spared from any cuts as Poland spends the most in NATO on defense as a proportion of its economy \u2014 around 4.7% in 2025. Hegseth has called it a \u201cmodel ally\u201d in NATO for spending so much on defense.<\/p>\n
When Poland\u2019s conservative president, Karol Nawrocki, visited the White House in September, Trump said he didn’t intend to pull U.S. troops out of Poland. \u201cWe\u2019ll put more there if they want,\u201d Trump said at the time.<\/p>\n
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Burrows reported from Tallinn, Estonia, and Ciobanu from Warsaw, Poland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth testifies at a House Appropriations subcommittee budget hearing for the Department of Defense, Tuesday,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14468,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[9441,9468,18557,18558,18559,479,9200,151,393,5,9236,9163,640,641,8518,671,18555,638,6756,2293,18556,1801],"class_list":{"0":"post-14467","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-germany","8":"tag-alexus-grynkewich","9":"tag-ben-hodges","10":"tag-christopher-laneve","11":"tag-dan-driscoll","12":"tag-don-bacon","13":"tag-donald-trump","14":"tag-donald-tusk","15":"tag-europe","16":"tag-friedrich-merz","17":"tag-germany","18":"tag-joel-valdez","19":"tag-mike-rogers","20":"tag-package-100024-ap-online","21":"tag-package-100373-mc-complete-state-national","22":"tag-pete-hegseth","23":"tag-poland","24":"tag-poland-us-troop-reduction-deployment-europe","25":"tag-product-30598-ap-national-news-report-a-wire","26":"tag-product-31998-ap-online-national-news","27":"tag-product-46986-ap-online-top-stories","28":"tag-thomas-g-dinanno","29":"tag-vladimir-putin"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14467"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14467\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}