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President Trump says he may withdraw some U.S. troops from Germany. Trump posted about this on Wednesday after he got cranky at Germany's chancellor, who had criticized Trump's handling of the war against Iran. Here's NPR's senior national political correspondent Mara Liasson.
MARA LIASSON, BYLINE: Just a day after British King Charles met with Trump and made the case for continued U.S. support of security in Europe through the NATO alliance, President Trump is threatening to pull U.S. troops out of Germany, apparently in retaliation for German Chancellor Friedrich Merz's statement that the U.S. was being humiliated by Iran and that the U.S. had, quote, "no truly convincing strategy" to end the war. Trump posted in response that Merz, quote, "doesn't know what he's talking about" and that he thinks it's OK for Iran to have a nuclear weapon. Trump also said in a post on Truth Social that the U.S. is, quote, "studying and reviewing" cutting back the number of U.S. troops in Germany, currently about 38,000. U.S. troops have been stationed in Germany since the end of World War II.
Trump has criticized Europe for not being more supportive of the U.S. war in Iran, and he's threatened to pull U.S. troops out of Europe before, but without following through. He has also issued a steady stream of criticism about NATO, suggesting more than once that the U.S. might stop supporting the alliance. Trump's latest attack on NATO came on the same day that Trump said he spoke with Russian leader Vladimir Putin about a possible ceasefire in Ukraine. Trump told reporters he spoke to Putin on the phone about the war in Iran and the war in Ukraine.
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I suggested a little bit of a ceasefire, and I think he might do that. He might announce something having to do with that. Did he announce it yet?
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: No, but I was wondering - I was just going to ask you if that...
TRUMP: Yeah. No, I asked him about - even if it's a little ceasefire. There's so many people being killed. It's so ridiculous.
LIASSON: Trump said he thought the Russian leader might go along with the idea, but ceasefire proposals in the war started by Russia's invasion of Ukraine have not always materialized. Trump has often praised Putin and criticized Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, for not agreeing with Russia on a way to end the war. Kremlin adviser Yuri Ushakov says that Putin told Trump he was ready to declare a temporary ceasefire in honor of Victory Day - a Russian holiday on May 9 commemorating the Soviet Union's victory over Nazi Germany in 1945.
Mara Liasson, NPR News, Washington. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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