Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) ripped President Donald Trump on Wednesday after he announced that the U.S. was considering reducing the number of troops in Germany, a move that analysts warn could be damaging to American interests.
“We are shooting ourselves in our own feet,” Bacon wrote in a post on X.
Bacon reacted to the president announcing on his Truth Social platform that the U.S. was “studying and reviewing” such a reduction in the NATO ally’s country and looking to make a determination “over the next short period of time.”
The congressman, a vocal Trump critic, drew from his nearly three decades of service in the U.S. Air Force, noting that he was a wing commander at Germany’s Ramstein Air Base.
“The two big airfields in Germany give us great access in three continents,” wrote Bacon, who simply described Trump’s continued attacks on NATO allies as “counterproductive.”
Trump’s post arrived just days after Germany’s chancellor, Friedrich Merz, said Iran has “humiliated” the U.S., arguing that Tehran is “obviously very skilled at negotiating, or rather, very skillful at not negotiating” considering that U.S. officials have headed to Pakistan for talks without producing results.
Trump, who has used his unpopular war in Iran to attack NATO allies, responded to Merz’s comments by claiming that the chancellor “thinks it’s OK” for Iran to have a nuclear weapon.
“He doesn’t know what he’s talking about! If Iran had a Nuclear Weapon, the whole World would be held hostage,” the president wrote. “I am doing something with Iran, right now, that other Nations, or Presidents, should have done long ago. No wonder Germany is doing so poorly, both Economically, and otherwise!”
On Wednesday, Merz told reporters the relationship between himself and the president “remains just as good as before.”
The U.S. removed hundreds of troops from Germany, Romania and Poland last year. The U.S. Army Europe and Africa, in a statement at the time, said the reelback wasn’t a sign of America lessening its commitment to NATO.
