Fox News reports that leaders of Europe are "on edge" about the possibility of President Donald Trump ordering the removal of about 20,000 U.S. troops from the continent. 

These would be the same 20,000 troops, according to the outlet, that former President Joe Biden deployed to Europe following the start of the Russia-Ukraine war.

The Trump administration suggested that such a withdrawal is a possibility shortly after Trump took office.

What has brought this issue back to the forefront, however, is recent events.

Background

The recent events that have European leaders worried, according to Fox, include Vice President J.D. Vance's recent speech in Munich.

Fox writes:

Those fears have been buoyed by recent events, including Vice President JD Vance’s remarks at a security conference in Munich in which the American leader scolded European leaders for their alleged break from shared values such as freedom of speech and Trump’s widening rift with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

The rift, at this point, may be more of a chasm, following the Oval Office blowup that resulted in Zelensky's removal from the White House.

According to Fox, the United States currently has upwards of 70,000 troops in Europe.

Per the outlet:

The current number of U.S. troops in Europe has fluctuated between 75,000 and 105,000 since 2022, according to data from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), with the higher end of that number being a result of the surge of forces into the region ordered by Biden.

Europe's concern

Fox quotes several individuals to highlight this concern, including Camille Grand of the European Council on Foreign Relations.

Grand recently said:

The Europeans have a serious problem of readiness … that they’re trying to fix, but it takes time. If Trump decides ‘I’m going to pull out U.S. troops from Germany because I’m upset with the trade imbalance,’ that’s much more complicated to manage than to say we have a plan to do this within X years.

Fox also quotes an unnamed NATO diplomat as saying, "I would not be surprised if at some point [those troops] go back to their home base in America."

Finally, the outlet quotes former British diplomat Nigel Gould-Davies as saying, "I just worry that, given, frankly, President Trump’s mercurial nature … how much confidence really can Europe have in any degree of American protection and defense."

Despite all of this, the Trump administration has indicated that it does not have any imminent plans to remove troops from Europe.