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Events • May 19, 2026 

# Should the United States Withdraw Troops from Germany? 

President Trump has repeatedly promised to withdraw US forces from Europe in an ongoing debate over America’s role in NATO. Earlier this month, the Pentagon announced that 5,000 troops will be withdrawn from bases in Germany over the next 6 to 12 months, out of roughly 36,000 US personnel based in the country. Although the justification was ostensibly Germany’s unwillingness to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a withdrawal is consonant with Trump’s prior statements and his effort to withdraw 12,000 troops from Germany in 2020. More than 75 years after the founding of NATO, is a US withdrawal from Germany warranted? What will be the likely consequences? And can the administration sustain a burden-shift to Europe? Please join our panel of distinguished experts on transatlantic security to discuss these questions.

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This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/). 

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##### Liana Fix 

Senior Fellow for Europe, Council on Foreign Relations

![Jennifer Kavanagh](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/author_picture/public/2024-06/Jennifer-Kavannagh.jpeg?itok=rro3IyyC) 

##### Jennifer Kavanagh 

Senior Fellow & Director of Military Analysis at Defense Priorities

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##### [Justin Logan](/people/justin-logan)

Director of Defense and Foreign Policy Studies, Cato Institute

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##### [Katherine Thompson](/people/katherine-thompson)

Senior Fellow, Defense and Foreign Policy Studies, Cato Institute

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