Trump Slams Germany, Says US Will ‘Probably’ Move Troops to Poland

Says sending troops to Poland a 'strong message to Russia'

President Trump met with Polish President Andrzej Duda on Wednesday, talking about bolstering defense cooperation. This is expected to come in the form of more US troops in Poland, as Trump says troops cut from Germany will probably be sent to Poland as a “strong message to Russia.”

Trump went after Germany during his comments, accusing them of being delinquent in NATO spending. Trump also repeated, as he so often does, the false claim that Germany “owes” NATO billions of dollars.

Poland spends just slightly over 2.0% of its GDP on its military, while Germany, with its much larger GDP, has fallen short of US demands. Poland’s conservative government has been more pro-Trump than Merkel’s in Germany as well, which probably leaves Trump inclined to shift the troops in that direction, above and beyond it being slightly closer to Russia.

This will likely only be a fraction of US troops leaving Germany, as many thousands of troops are being pulled out, while the talk with Poland is that 1,000 US troops already planned could be boosted to about 2,000.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.