{"id":8674,"date":"2026-04-29T23:54:32","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T23:54:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/8674\/"},"modified":"2026-04-29T23:54:32","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T23:54:32","slug":"trump-weighing-us-troop-reduction-in-germany-after-merzs-iran-war-criticism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/8674\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump weighing US troop reduction in Germany after Merz’s Iran war criticism"},"content":{"rendered":"

President Donald Trump<\/a> is considering reducing U.S. troops in Germany<\/a> after a spat with German Chancellor\u00a0Friedrich Merz<\/a> earlier this week.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe United States is studying and reviewing the possible reduction of Troops in Germany, with a determination to be made over the next short period of time,\u201d Trump wrote<\/a> in a post on Truth Social. <\/p>\n

On Monday, Merz said<\/a> the United States was being \u201chumiliated\u201d by Iran, prompting Trump to question Merz\u2019s geopolitical knowledge.<\/p>\n

PENTAGON ASKS CONGRESS TO CODIFY \u2018DEPARTMENT OF WAR\u2019 NAME AS COSTS EXCEED $50 MILLION<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Chancellor of Germany, Friedrich Merz, thinks it\u2019s OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon,\u201d Trump said in a post<\/a> on his Truth Social account. \u201cHe doesn\u2019t know what he\u2019s talking about! If Iran had a Nuclear Weapon, the whole World would be held hostage.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Merez said his relationship with the president still remained good on Wednesday before Trump\u2019s announcement that he was considering troop reductions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom my perspective, my personal relationship with the \u200bU.S. president remains good,\u201d Merz said, according to<\/a> Reuters. \u201cI simply had doubts from the \u2060start about what was begun with the war in Iran. That is \u200bwhy I have made that clear.\u201d<\/p>\n

The chancellor\u2019s comments<\/a> sparking the spat were made while addressing students at a German school on Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Iranians are obviously very skilled at negotiating, or rather, very skillful at not negotiating, letting the Americans travel to Islamabad and then leave again without any result,\u201d Merz said<\/a>.<\/p>\n

PENTAGON ASKS CONGRESS TO CODIFY \u2018DEPARTMENT OF WAR\u2019 NAME AS COSTS EXCEED $50 MILLION<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cAn entire nation is being humiliated by the Iranian leadership, especially by these so-called Revolutionary Guards,\u201d he added. \u201cAnd so I hope that this ends as quickly as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Merz has backed the U.S. blockade of Iran and expressed willingness to support mine-clearing operations in the Strait of Hormuz and the resumption of maritime trade, contingent on an end to the war between the U.S. and Iran.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"President Donald Trump is considering reducing U.S. troops in Germany after a spat with German Chancellor\u00a0Friedrich Merz earlier…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8675,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[479,393,5,619,6841],"class_list":{"0":"post-8674","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-germany","8":"tag-donald-trump","9":"tag-friedrich-merz","10":"tag-germany","11":"tag-military","12":"tag-washington-d-c"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8674","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=8674"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8674\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}