President Trump said in a post on Truth Social on Thursday that he will send 5,000 additional troops to Poland, the same number of troops the Pentagon has announced it plans to pull out of Germany.
“Based on the successful Election of the now President of Poland, Karol Nawrocki, who I was proud to Endorse, and our relationship with him, I am pleased to announce that the United States will be sending an additional 5,000 Troops to Poland,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
According to Briana Reilly, a reporter for Punchbowl News, House Armed Services Committee Chairman Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL) said that the 5,000 troops would come from Germany. The Trump administration is reducing the US military presence in Germany in response to Berlin’s criticism of the US-Israeli war against Iran, and the move to put them in Poland will increase the number of US forces closer to Russia.
Rogers also said that the 5,000 additional troops heading to Poland are separate from the delayed deployment of 4,000 US Army soldiers to Poland. It’s unclear how many US troops are currently in Poland, but based on US State Department numbers from last year, there are at least 10,000, a level that was reached due to the Biden administration’s buildup in Eastern Europe that began right before Russia invaded Ukraine.
Polish officials made clear they were eager to absorb the 5,000 US troops being pulled out of Germany. The Trump administration has also reportedly canceled a planned deployment of the Typhon missile system to Germany, a move announced by the Biden administration in 2024.
The Typhon can fire Tomahawk missiles, which have a range of over 1,000 miles, meaning they can reach Russia from German territory. The system was developed after the United States withdrew from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty in 2019, which banned Washington and Moscow from developing land-based missile systems with a range between 310 and 3,400 miles. It’s unclear at this point if the US wants to deploy the Typhon elsewhere in Europe.
