Trump Threatens More NATO Members With Troop Withdrawals

The US president said he could consider reducing the number of American forces stationed in Spain and Italy

US President Donald Trump has said he would consider withdrawing some American troops stationed in Italy and Spain, after making a similar threat toward Germany amid a deepening rift with Washington’s European allies over the war with Iran.

Trump threatened earlier this week to reduce the number of US troops in Germany, continuing to deride NATO as a “paper tiger” following the refusal of other member states to back the US-Israeli bombing campaign in the Middle East. On Friday, the Pentagon said it would withdraw around 5,000 of the roughly 36,000 active-duty service members from Germany.

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said the US decision was “to be expected.” He maintained that intensive military cooperation between the two nations would continue, adding that the continued US military presence on German soil “is in our interest.” The minister also urged European NATO members to “assume greater responsibility” and said that Berlin was “on the right track” by seeking to enlarge its army and procure more weapons.

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Asked by a reporter in the Oval Office on Friday whether he would consider removing troops from Spain or Italy, Trump replied: “Yeah, probably. Look, why shouldn’t I?”

“Italy has not been of any help to us. And Spain has been horrible, absolutely horrible,” Trump said. “It’s one thing if they said nicely, or if they said, ‘Okay, we’ll help,’ but the help is a little slow,” he added.

Spain denied the use of a naval base near Cadiz for attacks on Iran and closed its airspace to US planes involved in the campaign. Italy similarly refused to allow the US to use an air base in Sicily.

Trump reiterated that he considers NATO ungrateful for US military support to Ukraine. “We helped them with Ukraine. You know, they made a mess out of Ukraine, a total mess,” he said.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has strongly criticized the bombing of Iran. “From my point of view, this war is illegal, it is a big mistake,” he said last month. In a recent op-ed in Le Monde diplomatique, Sanchez again condemned “the unilateral attempts by the United States to engineer regime change in Venezuela and now Iran – all without seeking even a veneer of international approval.”

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has said the war with Iran has added to instability in the Middle East and driven up energy prices. She also criticized Trump’s attacks on Pope Leo XIV over his opposition to the conflict as “unacceptable.”