US Draws Back 700 Troops From Romania, Pentagon Warns NATO Allies

The United States decided to reduce the presence of American troops on Europe’s eastern flank, with the Pentagon warning NATO and allied countries about the drawdown.

“Gli Stati Uniti hanno deciso di ridurre la presenza delle truppe americane sul fianco orientale dell’Europa”

La Stampa

Washington reported that it returned 700 men of the Second Infantry Brigade to the US Army base in Kentucky, and said they would not be replaced as in the past.

La Stampa

The La Stampa account said the NATO headquarters stated that «gli aggiustamenti del dispiegamento americano non sono inusuali» and that the announcement was not unexpected.

It also said that while between 80 and 90 thousand American personnel were in Romania and at least a thousand would remain, small units would be withdrawn from Slovakia, Hungary and Bulgaria, with no change for US forces in Poland and Lithuania.

La Stampa added that the Romanian defense minister Ionut Mosteanu minimized the move, saying that in Romania «3500 uomini Nato fra cui soldati statunitensi» remain.

The Washington Post described how Rep. Mike D. Rogers, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, left the Pentagon suspecting he’d been told a lie after learning the Trump administration planned to remove thousands of soldiers from Romania.

In an October meeting with Elbridge Colby, the Pentagon’s policy chief, Rogers asked whether any troop reductions were planned, and two weeks later the administration announced it was removing an Army brigade that had fortified NATO’s eastern flank since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

La Stampa

Colby denied having misled Rogers and said, «I am very careful about what I say and what I don’t say,» while noting that in a formal letter he’d asked Rogers to retract the accusation of dishonesty.

The Pentagon press secretary Sean Parnell defended Colby, saying the policy chief was in «lockstep» with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

The Post said the feud became an open proxy war within the GOP, with at least two prominent Republicans publicly accusing Colby of dishonesty.

The Washington Post said the undersecretary of defense for policy role is the Pentagon’s chief strategist on issues such as counterterrorism and nuclear deterrence, and described Colby as coming to the job with Pentagon experience.

“Democracy Dies in Darkness By Noah Robertson Last fall, one of the top Republicans in Congress left the Pentagon suspecting he’d been told a lie”

Washingtonpost

It reported that at Colby’s confirmation hearing in March 2025, GOP senators challenged his views, and Colby assured them he would support the administration even if that meant providing military options against Iran.

The Post also said Vice President JD Vance appeared at the hearing and told senators Colby would bring «the type of perspective that we so desperately need at the Department of Defense.»

In parallel, La Stampa reported that the decision to reduce US deployments in Europe attracted perplessità, with Justyna Gotkowska saying «ogni riduzione può essere percepita da Mosca come un invito».

La Stampa further said a joint note from Republican presidents of the House and Senate Armed Services committees, Roger Wicker and Mike Rogers, expressed «forte opposizione» to not maintaining brigades on rotation in Romania.