Army Gen. Christopher Cavoli, the commander of U.S. troops in Europe and the Supreme Allied Commander Europe, testifies Tuesday, April 8, 2025, in Washington during a House Armed Services Committee hearing. (Eric Kayne/Stars and Stripes)
WASHINGTON — Lawmakers on Tuesday pushed back against President Donald Trump’s efforts to reduce the U.S. military’s presence in Europe, warning a reported plan to withdraw troops from the Continent would embolden Russia.
The Defense Department is reportedly considering the removal of thousands of troops from Eastern Europe as part of an effort to cut costs and prioritize the Indo-Pacific and other regions. Members of the House Armed Services Committee are urging the administration to reconsider.
“The ranking member and I have made it very clear … you should be focused on maintaining the surge posture we’ve had in Europe, since the conflict was started by Russia, for the foreseeable future,” Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Ala., told a Pentagon representative testifying before the committee.
Rep. Adam Smith of Washington, the top Democrat on the panel, said talk about downsizing American forces in Europe undermined a transatlantic relationship that has made the U.S. stronger for 80 years.
About 20,000 American service members were deployed to Europe in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, bringing the total number of U.S. troops on the Continent to 80,000. The Pentagon is now considering withdrawing as many of 10,000 of them from Romania and Poland, according to NBC News.
If approved, the plan would follow other recent moves to retreat from Europe.
The Army on Monday said it is pulling equipment and personnel out of a Polish site that has been instrumental in getting Western weapons into Ukraine. The U.S. has also ceded leadership of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group and is reportedly considering giving up its decades-old role as NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe, known as SACEUR.
“U.S. leadership in NATO is essential to ensure American forces, including our nuclear weapons, always remain under U.S. command,” Rogers said. “And cutting our presence in Europe now — especially on NATO’s eastern flank — would only weaken our leverage with [Russian President Vladimir] Putin.”
Rep. Michael Turner, R-Ohio, said, “The idiocy of the fact that there was any discussion” about relinquishing the SACEUR position “is just beyond me.”
Katherine Thompson, who is performing the duties of the assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs, told lawmakers that the U.S. would not give up the SACEUR job and cautioned no decisions have been made yet on troop levels around the world.
“We are taking into account not only the dynamics in [U.S. Europe Command] but in all of our theaters and evaluating that based on President Trump’s stated interests and sizing our force and resources appropriately to that,” she said.
Trump has criticized Europe for not contributing enough to NATO and is pushing for a swift end to Ukraine war. Thompson said the administration values its European allies “to the extent that they’re willing to step up and be strong allies and partners with us and that means pulling their weight.”
Army Gen. Christopher Cavoli, the commander of U.S. troops in Europe and the Supreme Allied Commander Europe, told lawmakers that he would recommend keeping the American military footprint in Europe as it is.
“We have periodically reviewed the force structure at both the military level and the policy level, and I have consistently recommended throughout that period to maintain the forces we surged forward and I would continue to do so now,” he said.
A cut in the number of forces would increase the time it would take for the military to respond to Russian aggression on the Continent, Cavoli said. He also noted while Russia respects all the militaries in NATO, it fears the might of the U.S. military the most.
The prospect of the U.S. drawing down its commitments to Europe has been worrying lawmakers across the political spectrum on Capitol Hill, including Republicans, for weeks.
Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi, the Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, last week criticized “midlevel bureaucrats within the Defense Department” who are pursuing a retreat from Europe.
“I’m troubled at those deeply misguided and dangerous views,” he said.
On Tuesday, Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., who is a former Air Force officer, said it would be a “grave mistake” to pull forces out of Europe.
“This is the time to deter Russia,” he said. “I think withdrawing forces is a sign of weakness and it lowers our deterrence.”
