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The Pentagon may remove 25,000 or more American soldiers now stationed in Europe
September 18, 2026
The Pentagon is weighing the withdrawal of 25,000 or more American troops, along with planes, ships and weapons, from Europe as NATO allies warn about Russia.
NATO is the alliance that ties the United States to the defense of Europe, where American troops, aircraft and ships have long been stationed; Romania, which borders Ukraine, sits on the alliance's eastern flank.
Key facts
- About half of the roughly 2,000 Americans stationed in Romania, many of them housed on the base itself, left over the past year, as the U.S. president, Donald Trump, and his team began overhauling how American forces are positioned across Europe.
- A headline said the Pentagon is considering withdrawing close to a third of the American force in Europe, a cut of 25,000 troops or more, even as allies in NATO warn that Russia poses a mounting danger.
- During a July stop at MK, the base itself pointed to something messier in Trump's drive to remake NATO.
- One line read that with both false information and sheer information overload in circulation, careful journalism matters more than it ever has.
NBC News reports that Pentagon planners are examining a sweeping pullback from Europe covering aircraft, naval vessels, weaponry and troop numbers in the tens of thousands. The scale under examination is 25,000 or more, close to a third of what the United States keeps on the continent. Seven officials, serving and retired, on the American and the wider Western side, described the deliberations to NBC News, which sets them beside alarm among NATO governments over an increasingly aggressive Russia.
The Japan Times reports that the shift is already visible in Romania. Roughly 2,000 Americans had been posted there, and about half of them left over the past year. Most had lived at the installation known as MK. Their exit came as Donald Trump's administration set about reordering how the United States stations its forces across Europe. Those exits unsettled Romania, a NATO member on Ukraine's border, because the base stands along the alliance's eastern edge while Russian drones keep straying into allied airspace. The Japan Times adds that a July visit to MK found Trump's remaking of the alliance to be messier than it looks from a distance. Reuters ties the pressure Trump has applied to NATO to a redrawing of European defenses, and asks whether the alliance survives it.
The three accounts agree with one another. Each describes an American presence in Europe shrinking under Trump, and neither the drawdown figure NBC News carries nor the Romanian exits The Japan Times describes draws a challenge from the others. What is settled is the direction of the shift and the scale now under consideration. What is not settled is whether the Pentagon signs off, and which units, aircraft and ships would go.
Still developing
The Pentagon plan to pull forces from Europe had not moved as of the draft.
How settled the reporting is
Sources
- NBC News — Trump administration weighs drastic cut to U.S. forces in Europe of 25,000 or more
- The Japan Times — Trump’s pressure on NATO is reshaping Europe’s defenses. Will it break the alliance? - The Japan Times
Toggle read the full reports of 4 of the 6 outlets counted on this event. The other 2 are counted from their headlines and opening sentences.