Trump Plans To Slash U.S. Troop Numbers In Germany [Infographic]

On Friday, The Wall Street Journal reported that President Trump has ordered a dramatic drawdown in U.S. troop numbers in Germany. He has long complained that America’s key allies are not spending enough on defense and demanded countries do more to share NATO’s financial burden. According to the latest data from the Defense Manpower Data Center, 34,674 U.S. service members were deployed in Germany in March 2020 and Trump has reportedly directed the Pentagon to reduce that number by 27.5%. That would see troop numbers in Germany capped at approximately 25,000 by September.

What would that mean for the U.S. military’s footprint abroad? Japan still hosts the most U.S. troops of any country by far with 55,165. Germany is currently in second place while South Korea hosts 26,184 service members, placing it third. Once the drawdown is complete, Germany would drop down into third position, though Trump also threatened to make similar cuts to South Korean troop numbers on numerous occasions. The list of the top-five countries hosting U.S. troops overseas is rounded off by Italy and the United Kingdom with 12,353 and 9,394 service members respectively.

While Poland’s prime minister said he hopes his country receives more U.S. troops as a consequence of Trump’s move, reaction from Germany was generally negative. Two senior members of Germany’s ruling CDU party expressed concern at the news with Johann Wadephul saying that the Trump administration “is neglecting to bind coalition partners into decision-making processes”. He added that “everyone profits from the alliance sticking together, only Russia and China profit from discord. Washington should pay more attention to that.”

Norbert Röttgen, another CDU politician, described the move as “regrettable”. Not all reaction was negative, however, and left wing parliamentary party Die Linke welcomed the drawdown with its leader Dietmar Bartsch stating that “the federal government should accept it with gratitude and promptly start preparing the complete withdrawal of US soldiers with the Trump administration”.

*Click below to enlarge (charted by Statista)