For the umpteenth time, the President of the United States, Donald Trump, has backtracked after having announced a decision with great fanfare. He had proclaimed that he would withdraw troops from Europe as part of his retaliatory measures against NATO for what he considers a lack of support from the allies. But now the president has announced on social media that he will send an additional 5,000 soldiers to Poland.
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In a comment on his social network, Truth, the Republican cited his friendship with the Polish nationalist conservative president, Karol Nawrocki, to announce the new deployment. “In light of the successful election of the now president of Poland, whom I was proud to support, and given our relationship with him, I am pleased to announce that the United States will send an additional 5,000 soldiers” to the Eastern European country, he wrote.
Trump, who has made his insults about the Atlantic Alliance a commonplace and has threatened for years to pull the United States out of the organization, received Nawrocki at the White House in May last year and expressed his support before the elections in which the conservative candidate defeated his rival from the centrist party of Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
The administration of the Republican president had announced the withdrawal of about 5,000 U.S. soldiers stationed at military bases in Germany over the next six months. The Pentagon had described this exit as a return to pre-Russian invasion levels in Ukraine in 2022. But Trump had warned that he would pull thousands of U.S. soldiers out of Europe as part of a series of punitive measures against the allies for not backing him as he expected in the war he ordered against Iran on February 28. In the case of the cut in Germany, the decision came after Chancellor Friedrich Merz had criticized the U.S. management of the war and opined that Iran was “humiliating” the United States in the Middle East.
The U.S. president has also warned other NATO partners, Spain and Italy, that they could face the same fate for refusing to authorize the use of bases on their territories for the offensive launched by the United States alongside Israel against Iran on February 28.
This Tuesday, U.S. Vice President J. D. Vance had told the press that a planned deployment of 5,000 U.S. soldiers to Poland was suspended as part of that review of the U.S. military presence in Europe.
The cancellation of the deployment in Poland had been announced last week at a joint meeting between the European Command and the U.S. Army Staff in Europe and Africa.
On Wednesday, in a statement, the Pentagon confirmed the reduction in the number of brigade combat teams (BCT) assigned to Europe, which would go from the current four to three. As a result, the deployment of U.S. forces in Poland would be “temporarily delayed.”
“This decision (the troop cut) has been the result of a thorough, multi-level process focused on the U.S. military position in Europe,” the Department of Defense said in its statement less than 24 hours before Trump announced the additional deployment. “This has resulted in a temporary delay in the deployment of U.S. troops to Poland, which is a model ally,” the Pentagon maintained.
“The State Department will determine the final disposition of these and other forces in Europe according to a detailed analysis of U.S. strategic and operational needs, as well as the capacity of our allies themselves to contribute troops to the defense of Europe,” the military statement noted.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth spoke with Polish Deputy Prime Minister Kosiniak-Kamysz on Tuesday, according to the Pentagon statement. That meeting aimed to ensure, among other things, that the United States maintained a sufficient presence in the European country. “Poland has demonstrated the capacity and determination to defend itself. Other European countries should follow its example,” the Department of Defense pointed out.
