Trump pledges 5,000 more troops to Poland after earlier cuts

President Donald Trump announced late Thursday that the United States would send an additional 5,000 troops to Poland, linking the move directly to his personal relationship with the country’s newly elected conservative president, Karol Nawrocki. The decision, posted on Truth Social, caught NATO allies off guard just hours before Secretary of State Marco Rubio was scheduled to meet with alliance foreign ministers in Helsingborg, Sweden.

The announcement marked a sharp reversal from earlier signals that Washington planned to scale back its military footprint in Europe. Only weeks prior, Trump had ordered the withdrawal of 5,000 troops from Germany after clashing with Chancellor Friedrich Merz over the Iran conflict. That earlier move had already delayed previously promised deployments to Poland, leaving European officials uncertain about long-term American commitments.

Trump framed the Poland deployment as a reward for Nawrocki’s election victory and the two leaders’ close ties. Nawrocki, a nationalist conservative whom Trump had publicly endorsed, welcomed the news and described it as strengthening cooperation between the two countries. Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski said the additional forces would help keep overall American troop levels in Poland roughly steady despite the broader shifts.

European allies, however, described the sequence of decisions as confusing and difficult to plan around. Swedish Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard noted that the rapid changes complicated efforts to align defense strategies. Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide stressed the need for any reductions or increases in U.S. presence to occur in a structured way so that European nations could adjust their own capabilities accordingly.

The troop announcement came amid ongoing friction over the Iran war. Rubio told reporters before the Sweden meeting that Trump remained disappointed with allies that had restricted American use of bases for the campaign, singling out Spain. He questioned whether such countries should remain in NATO if they were unwilling to support core U.S. operations. Rubio insisted the troop adjustments were not punitive and reflected routine reviews of global requirements.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte sought to project continuity, telling reporters that alliance members were accelerating defense spending increases and that hundreds of billions of additional dollars would flow into military capabilities in the coming years. Several countries, including Sweden, are moving faster toward the new 5 percent of GDP target agreed last year. Rutte emphasized the importance of not only spending more but also boosting defense industrial production to meet demand.

Still, the sudden policy swings have left European capitals questioning how to prioritize their own forces. With a NATO summit set for July in Ankara, diplomats are hoping to move past recent disputes and focus on collective spending goals. Yet the pattern of decisions tied to personal political relationships and abrupt reversals continues to complicate efforts to present a unified front.