“We are going to cut way down, and we’re cutting a lot further than 5,000,” Trump told reporters before boarding Air Force One in Palm Beach, Fla., on Saturday afternoon, The Hill reported.
The warning comes amid the president’s public clashes with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and other European allies over their criticism of the US’s military operations against Iran.
Earlier this week, Merz said that Iran was “humiliating” the US with its control over the Strait of Hormuz, a major oil shipping corridor.
The withdrawal of US troops from Germany is expected to impact the long-range fires battalion that the Joe Biden administration had set up to be deployed in the European nation later this year.
The chairs of the House and Senate Armed Services committees condemned the decision in a joint statement released on Saturday.
“Rather than withdrawing forces from the continent altogether, it is in the US interest to maintain a strong deterrent in Europe by moving these 5,000 US forces to the East,” Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) said in the statement.
“Those allies there have made substantial investments to host US troops, reducing costs for the US taxpayer while strengthening NATO’s front line to help deter a far more costly conflict from ever beginning,” the lawmakers continued.
The chairs also said that “significant changes” like this to US military operations require “a deliberate review process and close coordination with Congress and our allies”.
“We expect the Department to engage with its oversight committees in the days and weeks ahead on this decision and its implications for US deterrence and transatlantic security,” they wrote.