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The United States is withdrawing 5,000 troops from Nato ally Germany, the Pentagon announced on Friday, as a rift over the Iran war widens between President ⁠Donald Trump and Europe.

Trump had threatened a drawdown in forces earlier this week after sparring with German chancellor Friedrich Merz, who said on Monday the Iranians were humiliating the U.S. in talks to end the two-month-old war.

A senior Pentagon ⁠official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said ​recent ⁠German rhetoric had been "inappropriate and unhelpful."

"The president is rightly reacting to these counterproductive remarks," the official said.

open image in gallery More than 35,000 US troops are currently in Germany ( Getty )

Germany is the US military's biggest basing location in Europe, serving as a key training hub with more than 35,000 active-duty military personnel.

In his crackdown on Nato allies, Trump has singled out Germany for not sending their navies to help open the Strait of Hormuz during the conflict.

The waterway, a chokepoint for global ‌oil shipments, has remained virtually shut, causing market turmoil and unprecedented ​disruption in energy supplies.

Merz has been critical of the US and Israeli attack on Iran, saying on Monday that Iran’s leadership was humiliating the ⁠United States and getting US officials to travel to Pakistan and then leave without results, in an unusually pointed rebuke over the conflict.

open image in gallery The German army training at a military base in Munster ( Reuters )

He also said he did not see ‌what exit strategy the US was ​pursuing in the Iran ‌war - comments that ⁠underlined deep divisions between Washington ⁠and its European NATO allies, which had already ‌been festering ​over Ukraine and ‌other issues.

Trump said on Thuresday in a Truth Social rant: "The Chancellor of Germany should ​spend more time on ending the war with Russia/Ukraine (Where ‌he has been totally ineffective!), and ⁠fixing his broken Country, especially Immigration and Energy, and ⁠less time on interfering with those that are getting rid of the Iran ‌Nuclear threat, thereby ​making the World, including Germany, a ‌safer place!"

On Friday, Trump said he would increase tariffs on cars and trucks from the European Union to 25 per cent next week from the previously ⁠agreed 15 per cent, a move that will hit Germany hardest.

The Pentagon said the ⁠withdrawal was expected to be completed over the next six to twelve ​months. The drawdown is expected to bring US troop levels in Europe back to roughly pre-2022 levels, before Russia's invasion of Ukraine triggered a buildup by then-president Joe Biden.

A ‌brigade combat team will ‌be pulled out of Germany, and a long-range fires battalion that the Biden administration had planned to begin deploying to Germany later this year, will no longer move ⁠the official said.