US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered the withdrawal of about 5,000 troops from Germany within the next year, the Pentagon said on Friday, in the latest rift in transatlantic ties over the Mideast war.
The move came as US President Donald Trump announced that tariffs on cars and trucks from the European Union will increase to 25 percent next week, accusing the bloc of not complying with a trade deal inked last summer.
Trump has renewed criticism of German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who said Monday that Iran was “humiliating” Washington at the negotiating table. Trump said Merz “thinks it’s OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon. He doesn’t know what he’s talking about!”
On Wednesday, the American leader said Washington was “studying and reviewing the possible reduction” of US troops in Germany, and that he would decide in a “short period of time.”
Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a Friday statement that “We expect the withdrawal to be completed over the next six to twelve months.”
(Punch)
