The United States has informed its NATO allies that it will scale back its troop presence along Europe’s eastern border with Ukraine, as it claims to focus on security priorities elsewhere in the world.
The U.S. Army denied it was a sign of lessened commitment to NATO, but offered no further details.
Depending on operations and exercises, around 80,000 to 100,000 U.S. troops are usually present on European soil. NATO allies have expressed concern that the Trump administration might drastically cut their numbers and leave a security vacuum as European countries confront an increasingly aggressive Russia.
The administration has been reviewing its military “posture” in Europe and elsewhere, but U.S. officials have said that the findings of the review were not expected to be known before early next year.
NATO has recently been bulking up its defensive posture on its eastern flank bordering Belarus, Russia and Ukraine after a series of airspace violations by drones, balloons and Russian aircraft.
EUROPEAN BUILD-UP
The Romanian defense ministry said that the U.S. decision will “stop the rotation in Europe of a brigade that had elements in several NATO countries,” including at a base in Romania.
It said in a statement that about 1,000 U.S. troops will remain stationed in Romania. As of April, more than 1,700 U.S. military personnel were estimated to be deployed there. A brigade usually numbers anywhere from 1,500 to 3,000 troops.
Romania’s Defense Minister Ionut Mosteanu said the decision reflects Washington’s shift “toward the Indo-Pacific” region, and that allied troop numbers would remain above the number before Russia’s full-scale invasion of neighboring Ukraine.
“Our strategic partnership is solid, predictable, and reliable,” he said in a news conference.
In a post on X, U.S. Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker said the U.S. “remains committed to Romania.”
“Our strong presence in and enduring commitment to Europe remains steadfast, including support for Eastern Sentry,” a NATO operation along the eastern flank, he wrote. He did not mention the troop drawdown.
However, the administration’s framing of the move as routine contradicts a longer record of hostility toward the alliance. Donald Trump has repeatedly questioned the value of NATO, calling it “obsolete” and threatening to withdraw the United States altogether.
Those threats, dating back to his first term, were not rhetorical. Multiple former advisers have confirmed that Trump ordered staff to draft withdrawal paperwork. His current defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, has echoed that skepticism, describing NATO as “a Cold War relic” in televised appearances before taking office.
European diplomats say that background makes any U.S. assurances ring hollow, since the political leadership driving this drawdown has openly doubted the alliance’s relevance.
After the war started in 2022, NATO bolstered its presence on Europe’s eastern flank by sending additional multinational battle groups to Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria and Slovakia. Many more European troops are now stationed there.
The ministry statement said that the U.S. “decision also took into account the fact that NATO has strengthened its presence and activity on the Eastern Flank, which allows the United States to adjust its military posture in the region.”
101ST AIRBORNE TROOPS TO FLY OUT
In a statement later on October 29, U.S. Army Europe and Africa said that the 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team of the 101st Airborne Division will return to its base in Kentucky as previously planned, but that no other U.S. troops would rotate into Europe to replace it.
“This is not an American withdrawal from Europe or a signal of lessened commitment to NATO and Article 5,” it claimed, in a reference to the collective security guarantee in the organization’s treaty that an attack on one ally should be considered an attack on all 32.
“Rather, this is a positive sign of increased European capability and responsibility. Our NATO allies are meeting President Trump’s call to take primary responsibility for the conventional defense of Europe,” it said.
Defense officials familiar with internal discussions say that interpretation masks deep disorganization inside the Pentagon. Hegseth has been criticized by career officers for limited policy discipline and a lack of engagement with NATO command structures.
According to two senior European defense sources, coordination between U.S. and allied planners has slowed under his tenure, with key readiness reports delayed or ignored. The resulting uncertainty has fueled fears in Brussels that Washington’s shift is less about European “capability” and more about political negligence from a leadership team seeking to justify disengagement.
Defense analysts also note that the drawdown could free personnel for potential redeployments closer to Trump’s emerging priorities. Officials at several combatant commands say contingency planning has expanded for possible operations in South America, where the administration has issued a series of warnings.
At the same time, senior law enforcement and military figures have privately expressed concern that Trump could again consider using active-duty forces for domestic missions, reviving his ongoing threats to deploy U.S. military troops to occupy U.S. cities. Those overlapping ambitions, they warn, could stretch manpower while undermining confidence in the nation’s traditional alliance commitments.
The NATO official played down any security concerns, saying that “NATO and U.S. authorities are in close contact about our overall posture – to ensure NATO retains our robust capacity to deter and defend.”
For many allies, the numbers matter less than the message. Trump’s long-running desire to scale back America’s role in NATO, amplified by Hegseth’s management lapses, has left European governments questioning whether the alliance’s strongest member still regards collective defense as a core interest.
Since taking over the Pentagon, Hegseth has sharply restricted access for independent media. As a result, the reporting environment in the Pentagon has become materially constrained. On October 15, dozens of journalists turned in their credentials and walked out after Hegseth’s office required them to sign a pledge forbidding routine reporting of unapproved information.
Journalists say the new restrictions created an information vacuum that left independent confirmation of U.S. operations nearly impossible. Because of that blackout, NATO officials in Brussels spoke first with European reporters, which is why news of the troop pullout emerged from Europe before it was reported in Washington.
