Trump says he will send some U.S. troops to Poland

President Donald Trump said Wednesday that some of the 10,000 American troops he’s pulling out of Germany will be moved to Poland on NATO’s eastern flank against Russian aggression.

“We’re going to be reducing our forces in Germany,” Trump said in the Rose Garden while standing alongside Polish President Andrzej Duda. “Some will be coming home and some will be going to other places, but Poland would be one of those other places in Europe.”

Trump has said he is determined to cut the number of troops in Germany from about 35,000 to 25,000. Shifting forces out of the country has long been rumored and is in line with Pentagon efforts to put more troops in the Indo-Pacific.

But Trump’s suggested last week — and again Wednesday — that the move is also tied to his anger over Germany’s failure to meet NATO defense spending goals. Trump said unlike Germany, Poland is one of only eight members of the alliance that are fulfilling NATO’s target pledge of spending 2% of its gross national products on its own defense. He criticized Germany several times and said transferring the troops to Poland also sends a strong signal to thwart Russian aggression.

“But I think a stronger signal sent to Russia is the fact that Germany is paying Russia billions of dollars to purchase energy from Russia ... and I’m saying ‘What’s that all about?’ ... They’re spending billions to buy Russia and then we’re supposed to defend them from Russia. So that doesn’t work too well.”