President Donald Trump would have been right to pull 5,000 U.S. troops from Germany if former Chancellor Olaf Scholz or Angela Merkel were still in power. Under the leadership of those Chinese puppets, Germany continued to treat the NATO alliance like an American piggybank, all as an excuse to spend nothing on defense while building generous domestic welfare programs.
While Italy and Spain continue to revel in this freeloader strategy today, Germany is finally taking its NATO obligations seriously. If Trump were serious about justly punishing European allies for their obstruction of U.S. military during the war in Iran and their failures to adequately boost defense spending, he would have cut U.S. troop deployments in Spain and Italy, and not Germany.
To be sure, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz was foolish to suggest that the U.S. has been “humiliated” by Iran. While this war is very unpopular in Europe, Merz knows well Trump’s sensitive ego. Moreover, it was wholly undiplomatic of Merz to describe such a close ally in such derisive terms, especially during a war.
But Merz’s insult doesn’t make Trump’s troop withdrawals a sensible response.
Well over 80,000 U.S. military personnel will remain in Europe following this withdrawal, ensuring NATO’s deterrence against Russian aggression. That’s a good thing. NATO continues to provide very significant economic, military, and diplomatic benefits to the U.S. That said, Trump’s decision reeks of flippant petulance rather than a nuanced effort to jolt allies into treating America more fairly.
Spain and Italy offer far better opportunities to deliver that necessary jolt. Consider that, while those two nations gain lucrative economic benefits by hosting a number of military bases, they continue to invest inadequately in defense. They have also banned U.S. military basing operations and overflights related to Iran.
It gets worse. Under socialist prime minister Pedro Sanchez, Spain is set to spend just barely 2% of GDP on defense this year and next. Spain has also refused to join other NATO members in meeting the alliance’s defense spending target, 3.5% of GDP. And while Sanchez loves to present himself as a great moral archon against perceived American excess, he simultaneously revels in prostituting himself to the Chinese Communist Party.
Italy will not even meet the 2%-of-GDP target, exaggerating even its woefully inadequate budget by including its Carabinieri military police budget in its total calculation. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni recently ruled out boosting defense spending, arguing that domestic welfare concerns had to come first.
There is a real problem here.
True, some allies, such as the United Kingdom and France, are moving too slowly on defense. Still, Spain and Italy aside, there is now a common understanding among major European powers that the days of freeloading off the American taxpayer must pass into history. Those stuck in the past must face consequences.
Fortunately, withdrawing troops from Spain and Italy could be done in a way that bolsters both NATO and the U.S. military’s flexibility.
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As I argued in April 2025, Trump could “relocate [the Rota] U.S. naval air base in Spain to Greece. He should also transfer Air Force and Army units out of Italy to Poland. The incoming German government has suggested it will dramatically increase defense spending. If it fails to do so significantly and sustainably, Trump should also relocate U.S. forces out of Germany to Poland.” The Trump administration should act in recognition of these realities.
Allies unwilling to engage in even minimal burden-sharing should not retain the economic benefits and tripwire protection of U.S. military bases. Allies that value their alliance with the U.S. should instead gain those benefits, the Baltic States and Poland foremost among them. And Germany deserved a reprieve.