The Pentagon is preparing to eliminate roughly 200 American military positions embedded within NATO command and advisory bodies. These personnel cuts will affect several of the alliance’s most influential planning centers, including intelligence, special operations, and maritime command structures.
The report comes via The Washington Post, whose reporters spoke with multiple anonymous officials.
This has been in the works for months and conforms with President Trump’s view that we need to refocus away from Europe and toward our own hemisphere. The President wants the EU nations to have their own militaries, as per the American National Security Strategy (NSS). The strategy is a revival of the Monroe Doctrine.
While not directly tied to the Greenland issue that has greatly upset Europe, it will add to the angst. However, the timing is interesting. President Trump will speak to the Davos crowd today, and he has brought a contingent. Secretaries Bessent and Lutnick are in Davos now.
The Reductions
The impending move will affect about 200 military personnel and diminish U.S. involvement in nearly 30 NATO organizations, including its Centers of Excellence, which seek to train NATO forces on various areas of warfare, these people said. They spoke on the condition of anonymity to detail the U.S. administration’s plans.
Among the entities impacted are the NATO Intelligence Fusion Centre in the United Kingdom, the Allied Special Operations Forces Command in Brussels, and STRIKFORNATO in Portugal, which coordinates maritime operations. In total, roughly half of the American personnel assigned to these bodies will be removed.
It won’t happen all at once. It will take place by attrition over the years.
Among the advisory groups facing cuts are those dedicated to the alliance’s energy security and naval warfare, according to three officials
The Pentagon will also reduce its involvement in official NATO organizations dedicated to special operations and intelligence. Some of those U.S. functions will be shifted elsewhere within the alliance, limiting the move’s impact.
In a statement, a spokesperson for NATO said that “adjustments to US force posture and staffing are not unusual” and that the alliance was in “close contact” with Washington about its overall distribution of forces. However, it hasn’t happened for decades.
US forces are reduced to the lowest number of nearly 80,000, which is still enough during peacetime. Any more reductions must go through Congress.
As of early 2025, the U.S. has around 84,000 to 100,000 troops in Europe, with significant numbers in Germany (around 34,000-39,000), Italy (over 12,000), and the UK (around 10,000), plus additional forces surged to Eastern Europe after the 2022 invasion of Ukraine to reassure allies and deter aggression. Europe costs US taxpayers $60 billion per year. The savings in not… Read more »
Germany’s economy as well as the economies of other EU countries would crash if we pulled our troops out. Would kind of stop their arrogance, wouldn’t it.
The EU has no money, The EU has no military. Carney and others want to separate economically and politically from the USA. Please do so. Carney is quite bold and reckless to declare Canada is detaching from the USA. Canada will suffer, but the globalists will reward him. I see Trump mentioned Carney was unappreciative and combative with Trump at… Read more »
Get completely out of NATO and also close all of our bases and bring our men and women home let those ungrateful panzy’s protect themselves.
I totally agree.
That is the direction underway, or maybe we can move some troops to Hungary and Slovakia, to protect decent nations from the EU.
Good. Pull forces out of Europe and let them take care of themselves for a change. Let them solve Ukraine and deal with Putin. I’m sick of us being the policemen of the world. Get rid of the UN and all those corrupt bastards too. F Macron and the man in a wig he rode in on. Take Greenland, the… Read more »
The fewer people we have at NATO headquarters, the fewer people to leak information from the USA to the EU.
I don’t get this Rutte guy, a few weeks ago he stated that the EU will stage war with Russia if it takes 40 years, then today he praises Trump. That man is a chameleon.