{"id":297490,"date":"2025-07-28T03:18:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-28T03:18:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/297490\/"},"modified":"2025-07-28T03:18:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-28T03:18:12","slug":"germany-left-guessing-as-trump-weighs-us-troop-cuts-in-europe-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/297490\/","title":{"rendered":"Germany left guessing as Trump weighs US troop cuts in Europe \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"

Germany looks to keep Washington close<\/strong><\/p>\n

That uncertainty is exactly what Pistorius is trying to prevent from turning into a crisis. \u201cIt\u2019s about coordinating how we implement such a decision, if and when it comes,\u201d he said in Washington, \u201cso that no dangerous capability gaps emerge if the Americans withdraw something we can\u2019t replace quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n

That concern has already prompted Germany to step up quiet diplomatic outreach. Officials in Berlin have pushed for a phased, transparent approach, emphasizing the country\u2019s growing military investment and its readiness to host American forces.<\/p>\n

In June, Germany announced plans to boost defense spending<\/a> from approximately\u202f\u20ac86\u202fbillion in 2025 to around\u202f\u20ac153 billion by 2029 \u2014 raising it to roughly 3.5\u202fpercent of GDP to meet NATO targets and support shared infrastructure commitments.<\/p>\n

According to Matl\u00e9, the effort is deliberate \u2014 and, so far, moderately successful. \u201cThe German government clearly sought to reestablish a close alignment with the U.S. early on,\u201d she said, pointing to a coordinated push by Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Pistorius and Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul.<\/p>\n

\"\"One NATO official granted anonymity to speak candidly told POLITICO that a drawdown of up to 30 percent in Europe is possible. | Maurizio Gambarini\/EPA<\/p>\n

Merz, who phoned Trump in early July to secure weapons deliveries to Ukraine<\/a>, was successful in his attempt to stay in Washington\u2019s good graces.<\/p>\n

When he met Trump during his debut trip to Washington as chancellor, the issue of U.S. troop presence was raised during a press appearance in the Oval Office. Asked whether reductions were on the table, Trump said: \u201cI\u2019ve always said Europe needs to do more, but Germany has been stepping up. We\u2019ll look at what makes sense going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Germany looks to keep Washington close That uncertainty is exactly what Pistorius is trying to prevent from turning…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":297491,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5310],"tags":[7668,14787,6659,473,5293,32,2000,299,7058,1945,1824,1197,808,839,2597,8723,602,2823,811,1199,1201,49],"class_list":{"0":"post-297490","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-germany","8":"tag-boris-pistorius","9":"tag-cold-war","10":"tag-crisis","11":"tag-defense","12":"tag-diplomacy","13":"tag-donald-trump","14":"tag-eu","15":"tag-europe","16":"tag-european-defense","17":"tag-friedrich-merz","18":"tag-germany","19":"tag-investment","20":"tag-maritime","21":"tag-middle-east","22":"tag-military","23":"tag-pentagon","24":"tag-pete-hegseth","25":"tag-satellites","26":"tag-security","27":"tag-services","28":"tag-trade","29":"tag-united-states"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114928700947168259","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=297490"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297490\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/297491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=297490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=297490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=297490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}