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- A crack in the armor: Trump quarreled with party members over the withdrawal of troops from Germany
A crack in the armor: Trump quarreled with party members over the withdrawal of troops from Germany
Two leading Republican congressmen criticized the decision of US President Donald Trump to withdraw 5,000 American troops from Germany, a NATO ally. The situation is complicated by the fact that they opposed the line of the head of the White House at the very moment when lawmakers are preparing to discuss the Pentagon budget for next year. Details can be found in the Izvestia article.
Two against one
"We are extremely concerned about the decision to withdraw American troops from Germany," U.S. Senator Roger Wicker and U.S. House of Representatives Member Mike Rogers said in a joint statement released the day after the Pentagon's decision became known. The withdrawal of American units is planned to be completed within 6-12 months.
Wicker— a Republican elected from Mississippi, chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee, while Rogers, representing Alabama, holds a similar position in the House of Representatives.
In their opinion, any changes regarding the presence of the US military in Europe should be reviewed and coordinated with Congress and Washington's allies.
"We expect the Department of Defense to hold talks with its oversight committees in the coming days and weeks to discuss this decision and its implications for U.S. deterrence and transatlantic security," the statement said.
Congressmen are confident that the premature reduction of American troops in Europe "risks undermining deterrence and sending the wrong signal to [Russian President] Vladimir Putin."
Instead of a complete withdrawal of troops from Europe, Rogers and Wicker proposed to transfer them to the eastern flank of NATO. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has already stated that he is ready to support an increase in the American contingent in his country.
To spite the bastard
The announcement of the withdrawal of 5,000 American troops from Germany came after German Chancellor Friedrich Merz criticized the American operation in Iran.
According to the head of the German government, the United States is "humiliated" by the Iranian leadership. He also accused the White House of lacking a strategy to resolve the conflict and negotiate.
Trump took this as a personal insult, calling Merz an incompetent and weak leader. After that, he thought about the mutual benefits of cooperation between the two countries and came to the conclusion that it was disproportionate.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz
The American leader said that the United States spends billions of dollars on maintaining military bases in Germany, while Berlin has not provided support for the American military campaign against Iran.
After that, the Pentagon announced the withdrawal of 5,000 American troops. After a while, Trump added that this number "will be significantly higher." In addition, the Pentagon will not send a long-range fire battalion to Germany, which the administration of the previous US president, Joseph Biden, wanted to relocate there. It was planned to deploy the first American hypersonic Dark Eagle missiles in Germany, but now they are hurriedly trying to send them to the Middle East.
Achieve an increase in the defense budget
So now the process of partial withdrawal of American troops from Germany is unlikely to go smoothly. According to Politico, congressmen from the Democratic and Republican parties are against this. Formally, the president of the United States does not need congressional approval for this, but lawmakers may refuse to finance it or try to delay this process as much as possible in order to agree on other, more sensitive issues.
Last fall, Wicker and Rogers criticized the withdrawal of troops from Romania, believing that this "could lead to a further reduction in the number of American troops in Eastern Europe." At the same time, they cannot be attributed to the internal party opposition. Both politicians actively supported Donald Trump's Middle East policy and other initiatives of the American leader, but now they still opposed his decision.
This casts doubt on the future plans of the head of state for the withdrawal of troops from Europe. Trump said at a briefing at the White House that the American contingent could soon be reduced in Spain and Italy. However, discord with fellow party members in Congress can complicate this process. In addition, it is planned to discuss the Pentagon's budget for 2027 in the near future. Without the agreement of both committees, it will be quite difficult to achieve an increase in the defense budget, which Trump and Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth insist on.
Support is declining
Six months before the midterm congressional elections, Donald Trump's support from his fellow party members, which had previously seemed monolithic, is beginning to crumble. Against the background of a sharp drop in the rating of the head of state, 35 Republicans (most of the House of Representatives and several senators) publicly refused to be re-elected. This "outcome" has affected both staunch Trumpists and moderate conservatives.
Some retired generals and Republican governors are increasingly allowing themselves to publicly criticize the president's course, calling the unpopular war with Iran and the "purges" at the Pentagon "threats to national security."
At the same time, experts warn against jumping to conclusions. Republicans still have a significant financial advantage (besides, Elon Musk has returned to the party, who has donated tens of millions of dollars over the past two months). And the Democrats do not have a single recognizable leader, which prevents the party from consolidating the protest vote. Despite their dissatisfaction, about 65% of Republicans still believe that the party should follow Trump's course rather than seek a new direction.
Trying to save the situation, White House strategists plan to shift the focus of the election race from the "referendum on Trump" to "contrast with the Democrats," whose rating is also far from ideal.
If the situation in the Middle East does not stabilize, it threatens the American leader with serious problems, American political scientist Malek Dudakov believes.
"Only 8% of Americans believe that the strikes on Iran have deprived the country of its nuclear program. And 60% of the U.S. population believes that the war has made it more likely that a recession will occur, which could trigger an energy shock. Such a scenario will finish off Trump's ratings," the expert wrote on his Telegram channel.
The expert is confident that the situation inside the United States will in any case be destabilized with the approach of congressional elections.
"And the Democrats, in order to mobilize the protest electorate, are already promising to launch impeachment proceedings against Trump in 2027. Or else it will be if the Hormuz remains closed until the fall, and oil prices go down by $ 200 per barrel. Then the position of the Trump team will become critical," the analyst predicts.
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