(Ken Silva, Headline USA) An Italian news outlet reported last week that President Donald Trump is planning to withdraw some 20,000 troops from Europe.
Citing an unnamed European diplomat, Italian outlet ANSA reported that Trump A European diplomatic source told ANSA that Trump wants to reduce the military’s presence in Europe by about 20%, and that he plans to ask for a “financial contribution” for the maintenance of the remaining troops.
“Furthermore, for those who remain, he would like a financial contribution from European countries because these soldiers are a deterrent, and the costs cannot be borne only by American taxpayers,” the diplomat said, as reported by antiwar.com, which added that Trump wants European countries to increase military spending to 5% of their GDPs from their current levels of about 2%.
About 100,000 U.S. troops are in Europe. According to antiwar.com, former President Joe Biden increased the troop count to its highest levels since 2005, largely due to his proxy war against Russia.
I like it but I think we can bump that number up pic.twitter.com/w2Zs0qEr1Q
— Dave DeCamp (@DecampDave) January 28, 2025
Trump reportedly wanted to withdraw 9,500 troops from Germany during his first term, but he was thwarted by his own generals. The same occurred in Syria, where Trump ordered troop withdrawals in 2018 and 2019. Both times, officials either resigned in protest or outright deceived the President.
And according to DefenseOne.com, military officials lied to Trump about how many troops were in Syria.
“We were always playing shell games to not make clear to our leadership how many troops we had there,” McGurk’s replacement, diplomat Jim Jeffrey, told the publication in November 2020.
Jeffrey added that the actual number of troops in northeast Syria is “a lot more than” the roughly two hundred troops Trump initially agreed to leave there in 2019.
Last month, the Pentagon admitted that it was deceiving the public, too.
Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder reportedly said last month that the true number of troops in Syria is 2,000—not the 900 that officials have reported for years. Ryder also said there were more troops in Iraq than the 2,500 figure that he’s quoted for years. However, Ryder wouldn’t disclose exactly how many more troops are there.
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.
