Germany’s defence minister has said the US decision to withdraw 5,000 troops from his country was “foreseeable”, as the Nato military alliance says it is seeking clarification from Washington.
Speaking to the DPA news agency, Boris Pistorius also stressed “the presence of American soldiers in Europe, and particularly in Germany, is in our interest and in the interest of the US”.
Meanwhile Nato spokeswoman Allison Hart said the alliance was “working with the US to understand the details of their decision”.
When asked on Saturday night about the withdrawal of troops, Trump said: “We’re going to cut way down, and we’re cutting a lot further than 5,000.” He did not provide more details.
Washington’s move comes after President Donald Trump criticised German Chancellor Friedrich Merz for saying the US had been “humiliated” by Iranian negotiators in the ongoing war.
Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell on Friday said the move followed a thorough review and recognised “theater requirements and conditions on the ground”.
The US military deployment in Germany – currently at more than 36,000 active duty troops – is by far its biggest in Europe, compared with about 12,000 in Italy and 10,000 in the UK.
Trump has also suggested pulling US troops from Italy and Spain.
Last year, Washington decided to reduce its troop presence in Romania, as part of Trump’s plan to shift the focus of US military commitment from Europe to the Indo-Pacific region.
There are now growing concerns within the 32-member Nato alliance that the US latest decision could weaken the organisation.
“The greatest threat to the transatlantic community are not its external enemies, but the ongoing disintegration of our alliance,” Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk warned on Saturday.
“We must all do what it takes to reverse this disastrous trend,” he added.
And two senior US lawmakers from Trump’s Republican party said that they were “very concerned by the decision to withdraw a US brigade from Germany”.
“Rather than withdrawing forces from the continent altogether, it is in the US interest to maintain a strong deterrent in Europe,” said Senator Roger Wicker and Representative Mike Rogers, who chair the Senate and House armed services committees respectively.
In Saturday’s interview with DPA, Pistorius also said Europe must take greater responsibility for its security, and that Berlin would now be working more closely with allies on the continent.
“Germany is on the right track,” he said, pointing out that his country has significantly boosted its military spending in recent years.
Trump had previously accused Germany of being “delinquent” because its military spending was well below Nato’s target of 2% of economic output (GDP).
But that began to change under the previous government of Olaf Scholz and has continued under Merz’s current government, with Germany now projected to spend €105.8bn (£91bn) on defence in 2027.
Overall, Germany’s defence expenditure is set to reach 3.1% of GDP, taking into account other defence funds, including Berlin’s continuing aid to Ukraine as its continues to fight against invading Russian troops.
In her post on X on Saturday, Nato’s Allison Hart said the US decision to pull troops out of Germany “underscores the need for Europe to continue to invest more in defence and take on a greater share of the responsibility for our shared security.
“We’re already seeing progress since allies agreed to invest 5% of GDP at the Nato summit in The Hague last year.”
The latest spat between Trump and Merz was triggered by comments by the German chancellor on Monday.
Merz told students that “the Americans clearly have no strategy”.
“The Iranians are obviously very skilled at negotiating, or rather, very skilful at not negotiating, letting the Americans travel to Islamabad and then leave again without any result,” he said.
He added that the “entire nation” was being “humiliated” by Iran.
In response, Trump took to his platform Truth Social, saying Merz thought it was “OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon” and “doesn’t know what he’s talking about”.
This was soon followed by the US troop withdrawal announcement.
Parnell said the order had come from Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth.
“We expect the withdrawal to be completed over the next six to twelve months,” the spokesman added.
Trump, a longtime critic of the Nato alliance, has been lashing out at allies over their refusal to participate in operations to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a key oil shipping route.
Iran has severely limited traffic through the waterway, responding to US and Israeli strikes that began on 28 February.
The US has also enforced a naval blockade on Iranian ports in the Gulf.
Iran has received a US response to its latest peace proposal, Iranian state-linked media have said.
Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson said the response – which was delivered via Pakistan – was now being reviewed, according to Tasnim news agency.
The US is yet to confirm it has replied to Tehran. On Saturday, President Donald Trump he would “soon be reviewing the plan that Iran has just sent to us, but can’t imagine that it would be acceptable”.
Iranian state media said Tehran’s 14-point plan asked Washington to withdraw its forces from near Iran’s borders, end its naval blockade of Iranian ports, and for all hostilities – including Israel’s offensive in Lebanon – to cease.
It also called for an agreement between the two countries to be reached within 30 days.
Iranian state media added that the proposal urged the two warring sides to focus on “ending the war” rather than extending a current ceasefire.
Referring to the proposal, Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social late on Saturday: “They have not yet paid a big enough price for what they have done to Humanity, and the World, over the last 47 years.”
Speaking to reporters on the same day in Palm Beach, Florida, he said he had yet to look over the plan in detail.
“They told me about the concept of the deal,” he said. “They’re going to give me the exact wording now.”
Asked by the BBC about the possibility of renewing military strikes against targets inside Iran, Trump said that it was “a possibility”.
“If they misbehave. If they do something bad,” he said. “But right now we’ll see.”
Trump appeared disinclined to withdraw from the conflict entirely, saying that “we’re not leaving” and that “we’re going to do it, so nobody has to go back in two years or five years.”
The Iranian state-linked agencies said Tehran’s latest proposal was in response to a nine-point US plan, which envisaged a two-month ceasefire.
On Friday, Trump addressed a letter to members of the US Congress, saying the conflict had been “terminated” since a ceasefire took effect on 8 April – even though Iran still posed a “significant” threat to the US and its military forces deployed in the region.
The ongoing blockade of Iranian ports, he claimed, did not represent the continuation of the conflict.
“It’s a very friendly blockade,” he said. “Nobody is even challenging it.”
Trump also argued he did not need to meet a deadline for legislative approval of the war as the truce had paused the clock on any such obligation.
By law, a US president must receive Congress’ approval within 60 days of notifying lawmakers of military action, or else cease hostilities.
Friday was the 60th day since Trump formally notified Congress of US strikes against Iran on 2 March. The US and Israel launched their attacks two days earlier – on 28 February.
At various points during a series of public remarks on the same day, Trump also repeated his refrain that “Iran can never have a nuclear weapon”.
Iran has repeatedly denied it is seeking a bomb and says its programme is only for peaceful purposes, though the country is the only non-nuclear-armed state to have enriched uranium at near weapons-grade level.
Trump’s latest remarks come as US lawmakers – including many from his Republican party – are growing publicly frustrated with what many view as a costly, complex war with murky objectives.
Missouri Republican Senator Josh Hawley called on the Trump administration to begin redeploying forces away from the conflict and argued that Congressional approval would be necessary for the war to continue.
“I don’t really want to do that,” Hawley said. “I want to wind it down.”
Another Republican Senator, Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski – a prominent Trump critic – cast doubt on the success of the operation and any potential talks.
“While the administration may point to ongoing negotiations, events on the ground and the rhetoric coming out of Tehran tell a different story,” she said.
“But if the US steps back abruptly and prematurely, we almost certainly leave their critical capabilities intact.
“And those are not risk that I’m willing to take. But the answer is not a blank check for another endless war,” Murkowski added.
