Trump Threatens to Withdraw U.S. Troops From Italy and Spain as Europe Rift Widens
President Donald Trump said “yeah, I probably will,” when asked whether he would consider pulling U.S. troops from Italy and Spain.
“Why shouldn't I? Italy has not been of any help to us and Spain has been horrible. Absolutely horrible,” he replied , doubling down on his argument that NATO allies have not supported the U.S. during the Iran war .
“We helped them [Europe] with Ukraine… but when we needed them, they were not there. We have to remember that.”
As of December 2025, there were 12,662 U.S. active-duty personnel stationed in Italy and 3,814 in Spain, according to data from the U.S. Defense Manpower Data Center (DMDC).
While Spain has yet to respond to Trump mulling over the troops, Italy’s Defense Minister Guido Crosetto has pushed back.
“I wouldn't understand the reasons behind it. As is clear to anyone, we haven't used the Strait of Hormuz. And we've even offered to carry out a mission to protect shipping—a gesture that, incidentally, was greatly appreciated by the U.S. military,” he told Italian ANSA news agency.
TIME has reached out to the Prime Minister offices in Italy and Spain for comment.
Trump’s remarks regarding Italy and Spain mirror a similar warning he issued to Germany this week amid an escalating row with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
“The United States is studying and reviewing the possible reduction of troops in Germany, with a determination to be made over the next short period of time,” he said Wednesday.
Trump bolstered the threat by telling Merz to focus on matters closer to home instead of "interfering" with the Iran war.
Merz earned the wrath of Trump by saying that the U.S. is “ being humiliated by the Iranian leadership,” amid the breakdown of negotiations between Washington and Tehran.
The deepening row between the U.S. and its core European allies comes against the backdrop of the conflict in the Middle East—and the consequential disruption in the Strait of Hormuz that has upended global markets.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has been a vocal critic of the war, describing the initial U.S. and Israeli strikes as “illegal.”
Spain denied America access to its joint-military bases to attack Iran and also proceeded to close its airspace to U.S. planes involved in the conflict. The country's position has drawn repeated criticism from Trump, who threatened to cut trade ties with Spain in early March.
Sánchez recently downplayed reports of a leaked internal Pentagon email, which reportedly indicated the U.S. was floating the idea of suspending Spain from NATO as part of a move to punish “difficult” allies.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, once seen as a close ally of Trump in Europe, has also emphasized Italy’s distance from the Iran war.
When it was reported Italy had denied the use of a Sicilian airbase to U.S. military aircraft after concluding proper authorization procedures had not been followed, Trump issued a critical response, insisting: “Italy wasn’t there for us, we won’t be there for them."
Tensions escalated once more over Trump’s public feud with Pope Leo .
The U.S. President accused the Pontiff of being “weak on crime” and “terrible for foreign policy” after the religious leader called for an end to the war in Iran .
“I find President Trump’s words regarding the Holy Father to be unacceptable,” Meloni said . “The Pope is the head of the Catholic Church, and it is right and normal that he should call for peace and condemn all forms of war.”
Italy is predominantly a Catholic country.
Trump later told Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera that Meloni was the “unacceptable” one, claiming she “doesn’t care if Iran has a nuclear weapon."
Meanwhile, the Secretary-General of the United Nations António Guterres warned Friday that the "consequences of the Middle East crisis grow dramatically worse with each passing hour.”
“The curtailment of navigational rights and freedoms in the area of the Strait of Hormuz disrupts energy, transport, manufacturing and food markets, and strangles the global economy,” he said .
Guterres urged for the full reopening of the Strait and for “dialogue and measures” that can lead to a durable peace.
Understanding the rift between Europe and the U.S. amid the Iran war
Trump announced Friday that he intends to place a 25% tariff on autos from the E.U. next week, accusing the bloc of not complying with its trade agreement with the U.S.
“I am pleased to announce that, based on the fact the European Union is not complying with our fully agreed to trade deal, next week I will be increasing tariffs charged to the European Union for cars and trucks coming into the United States,” he said .
"It is fully understood and agreed that, if they produce cars and trucks in USA plants, there will be no tariff."
Bernd Lange, chairman of the E.U. parliament’s trade committee, called the threat " unacceptable ."
"We’ve seen these arbitrary moves before, even towards partners," he said. "The E.U. must now keep clarity and firmness."
The agreement struck in July last year between the E.U. and the U.S. saw a tariff ceiling of 15% on most European goods. In return, the E.U. agreed to eliminate duties on U.S. industrial goods, including autos.
But the process to implement such reductions has not yet been completed.
Matthias Matthijs, a senior fellow for Europe at the Council on Foreign Relations, says Trump's tariff threat appears to be another attempt at applying economic pressure to yield results.
“He (Trump) knows the Europeans' pain point is trade. This is clearly being used as leverage to get other things... but it may not work this time,” Matthijs tells TIME.
TIME has reached out to the E.U. headquarters for comment.
The trade dispute comes amid an energy crisis that has rocked European markets.
The Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI), an economic indicator released late April by S&P Global, shows that the cost inflation of goods as they leave factories has risen significantly, pushing it to a 37-month high as a result of the Middle East conflict.
The International Monetary Fund now expects euro area growth to decline from 1.4% in 2025 to 1.1% in 2026 and 1.2% in 2027, with both forecasts revised down by 0.2 percentage points from its January update.
“In just 60 days of conflict, our bill for fossil fuel imports has increased by over EUR 27 billion, without a single molecule of additional energy,” European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen told the European Parliament earlier this week.
The economic strain has also been felt in the U.K., where growth forecasts have been revised downward .
The U.K.’s top economic official has accused Trump of entering the Iran war “without a clear plan,” while Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he is “fed up” with people in the U.K. encountering financial instability due to the actions of Trump.
However, the current tensions are only the latest stage in a broader deterioration of relations between the U.S. and its European allies.
“Europeans were shocked by the treatment of [Ukraine President Volodymyr] Zelensky in that famous Oval Office meeting , and then that was followed by the ' Liberation Day' tariffs ,” recalls Matthijs.
He refers to the U.S.-E.U. trade agreement and most European countries committing to an increase in NATO defense spending to 5% as a “high moment of European appeasement.”
“Europeans thought it was done, they settled defense, they settled trade,” says Matthijs. “I think the big turning point came with Greenland in January. That's when the Europeans realized, 'Okay, we cannot just keep bending the knee and appeasing.'”
Trump’s threat to impose a 25% tariff on the U.K. and other European allies until Denmark relented and sold the territory of Greenland—something Danish and Greenlandic officials have said will not happen—was met with wide backlash, with Starmer labeling the move “completely wrong.”
Since then, Trump has leveled repeated criticisms at NATO and even threatened to withdraw from the alliance .
Merz warned of “a deep rift” between Europe and the United States in February, arguing that the latter “will not be powerful enough to go it alone” during a speech at the Munich Security Conference.
The fallout of the Iran war has since created more distance, with European leaders refusing to become actively involved in the conflict.
“I think that's starting to annoy the Trump Administration, because they now realize in Iran they need allies. They need bases, they need support for any sort of policing of the Strait of Hormuz after it opens,” Matthijs says.
