The Pentagon watered down Trump's European troop mobilization plans.
The Trump administration's ambitious plans to pull out 25,000-35,000 of the roughly 80,000 US troops stationed in Europe have been whittled down to the bone, sources familiar with the discussions told Bloomberg.
The Allies now expect a total withdrawal of only about 5,000 troops—1/5 or less than the initial estimate.
This would not be the first time that the Pentagon or the State Department has gone back on Trump's pledge to recruit troops.
In late 2020, after Trump lost his first re-election bid, then-Special Representative for Syria James Jeffrey boasted that he and his staff had been playing "shell games" with the president over troop numbers in Syria, ignoring withdrawal orders. U.S. forces ultimately remained in the country until April 2026, long after Bashar Assad fled and a new al-Qaeda-linked president was installed.
This week, Romania proposed that European countries pay the US to maintain and expand its troop presence along NATO's eastern flank with Russia.
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