Trump Defends Plan to Pull Out 12,000 Troops From Germany Over 'Delinquent' NATO Fees

President Donald Trump is defending the decision to pull U.S. troops out of Germany, telling reporters “we’re reducing the force because they’re not paying their bills. It’s very simple. They’re delinquent.”

He added that he might rethink the decision to pull troops out of Germany "if they start paying their bills.”

The U.S. will bring about 6,400 forces home and shift about 5,600 to other countries in Europe, U.S. defense leaders said Wednesday, detailing a Pentagon plan that will cost billions of dollars and take years to complete.

A number of forces will go to Italy, and a major move would shift U.S. European Command and Special Operations Command Europe from Stuttgart, Germany, to Belgium.

Defense Secretary Mark Esper said that some moves will begin in months and will leave about 24,000 troops in Germany.

He said that while the decision was “accelerated” by Trump's orders, the moves also promote larger strategic goals to deter Russia, reassure European allies and shift forces further east into the Black Sea and Baltic regions.

Trump also spoke about his conversation with Russia over nuclear arms agreement.

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[marcisunshine]

Making more enemies from our allies. How presidential 🙄

[mr.s.]

Here's a recommendation to Germany - let all American troops leave Germany - close Ramstein and Landstuhl and all the other places and wish them luck with running their Afghanistan and Iraq and all other Middle East operations from Turkey or Saudi
Here is one likely thing that might happen after that - once the Americans are gone, Germany will upgrade their army and start to further develop high end eqiupment - and that will also impact the military equipment market - because if the Germans are good in one thing - then it is in engineering (remember - Porsche, BMW, Audi, Mercedes???) . So on a long run - economically this is going to hurt the U.S. more then Germany - it would not be a surprise if their military equipment would significantly increase in the comming

[notnek]

Finally and about time Germany hasn’t been a good partner and need to defend themselves. Tired of my hard earned money going to countries who think they are better then us.

[rinkupathak]

Good for Germany good for USA.. well-done Trump..

[sarahbums]

lmao donald trump trying to call somebody else out for not paying their i even have to make a joke here?

[MrAckers]

Yep fair play Donald.
Why should everyone else pay to protect Germany

[elhijodelchupacabra]

Well done Sr. !
Latinos with Trump 2020 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

[JohnDoe-fwbv]

Let Germany defend themselves.

MAGA! KAG 2020!

[ralphbieker]

WE HAVE CONTRIBUTED ENOUGH TO GERMANY, WITH NO RETURN ...IT’S OVER !!!

[ianreed]

This is what puppetmaster Putin commanded him to do on that phone call the other day.

[steveca]

America finally going home ww2 was a long time ago

[MausTheGerman]

comparing Defence spending between the different countries is like comparing apples and pears. France for instance, their complete national fire fighting departments are financed by their „military pot“. Turkey and Greece for instance, they have such a high Defence spending due to their border conflicts - having many soldiers there. And now coming to US, The United States spends 3.42 percent of its GDP on its military, 0.3 percent less than in 2014, by the way. The military budget for the US troops stationed around the world only benefits barely half of the NATO tasks in the narrower sense (estimates the management consultancy McKinsey in an analysiss). The proportion of US spending on NATO is around 1.7 percent of GDP - that is, if you calculate it so that even the United States does not reach the target of 2 percent.

[johnmoe]

Germany isn’t used to a president with balls.

[shredhead]

I'm part of a NATO mission currently. I'd give my life for the guys we've been working with. Hearing you guys say these terrible things about our allies irks me because you have no fucking clue what the situation is like for the ones doing the work. Allied relationships are extremely important. This is a terrible decision. One that saddens me greatly. The president can't even ask Putin if the bounty issue was real. Not that he would be honest. But come on man, I hate seeing a sitting president shit on our allies like this.

[jsmcguireIII]

BOW DOWN TO RUSSIA LIKE A GOOD PUPPET.

[unglaublichcharlatan]

Now Bundeswehr can officially go back to its glorious days

[cccbb]

First time that Trump has done something good. In Germany we say... “und tschüss 👋🏻 “
hope to see the soldiers never again.

[larsmeyer]

It doesn´t feel okay to have foreign troops commanded by an aggressive liar in your country.

[vonpfrentsch]

He just learned the word "delinquent"...

[khaitsae]

I don't think U.S. troops should be where they are not needed, but I wonder if this decision have anything to do with Germany going with with Nord Stream.