US to cut roughly 200 NATO positions, sources say

WASHINGTON — The United States plans to reduce the number of personnel it has stationed within several key NATO command centers, a move that could intensify concerns in Europe about Washington’s commitment to the alliance, three sources familiar with the matter said this week.

As part of the move, which the Trump administration has communicated to some European capitals, the U.S. will eliminate roughly 200 positions from the NATO entities that oversee and plan the alliance’s military and intelligence operations, said the sources, who requested anonymity to discuss private diplomatic conversations.

Among the bodies that will be affected, said the sources, are the UK-based NATO Intelligence Fusion Centre and the Allied Special Operations Forces Command in Brussels. Portugal-based STRIKFORNATO, which oversees some maritime operations, will also be cut, as will several other similar NATO entities, the sources said.

The sources did not specify why the U.S. had decided to cut the number of staff dedicated to the NATO roles, but the moves broadly align with the Trump administration’s stated intention to shift more resources toward the Western Hemisphere.

The Washington Post first reported the decision.

The changes are small relative to the size of the U.S. military force stationed in Europe and do not necessarily signal a broader U.S. shift away from the continent. Around 80,000 military personnel are stationed in Europe, almost half of them in Germany. But the moves are nonetheless likely to stoke European anxiety about the future of the alliance, which is already running high given President Donald Trump’s stepped-up campaign to wrest Greenland away from Denmark, raising the unprecedented prospect of territorial aggression within NATO.

On Tuesday morning, the U.S. president, who is scheduled to fly to the World Economic Forum in Switzerland in the evening, shared another user’s post on social media that identified NATO as a threat to the United States. The post described China and Russia as merely “boogeymen.”

Asked for comment, a NATO official said changes to U.S. staffing are not unusual and that the U.S. presence in Europe is larger than it has been in years.

“NATO and U.S. authorities are in close contact about our overall posture — to ensure NATO retains our robust capacity to deter and defend,” the NATO official said.

The White House and the Pentagon did not respond to requests for comment.

Reuters could not obtain a full list of NATO entities that will be affected by the new policy. About 400 U.S. personnel are stationed within the entities that will see cuts, one of the sources said, meaning the total number of Americans at the affected NATO bodies will be reduced by roughly half.

Rather than recalling servicemembers from their current posts, the U.S. will for the most part decline to backfill them as they move on from their positions, the sources said.

The drawdown comes as the alliance traverses one of the most diplomatically fraught moments in its 77-year history. Trump famously threatened to withdraw from NATO during his first presidential term and said on the campaign trail that he would encourage Russian President Vladimir Putin to attack NATO members that did not pay their fair share on defense. But he appeared to warm to NATO over the first half of 2025, effusively praising NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte and other European leaders after they agreed to boost defense spending at a June summit.