{"id":1517,"date":"2025-11-07T18:15:32","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T19:15:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globaltaalenthq.com\/?p=1517"},"modified":"2025-11-10T08:48:43","modified_gmt":"2025-11-10T08:48:43","slug":"trump-hegseth-defend-troop-cutback-as-romania-seeks-reversal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globaltaalenthq.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/07\/trump-hegseth-defend-troop-cutback-as-romania-seeks-reversal\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump, Hegseth defend troop cutback as Romania seeks reversal"},"content":{"rendered":"

President Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth defended the U.S. government\u2019s decision to withdraw some troops<\/a> from Romania as Bucharest seeks a reversal of the move, warning of continued threats on NATO\u2019s eastern flank. <\/p>\n

Trump, taking questions during a meeting with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orb\u00e1n at the White House, was asked why the Pentagon was scaling down troops in Romania just weeks after Trump said the U.S. would not pull troops out of Europe.<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/strong>We make changes. We move \u2014 it’s the same number, total number, but we move people around. I happen to like the Romanian people. I think they’re great people,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n

Hegseth said the decision was coordinate with the White House. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s all part of the view that we have of Europe. And there will remain troops in Romania, but there’s some change in how we rotate and how many..,\u201dHegseth said, adding that the decision was coordinated with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, U.S. European Command and that allies were \u201cnotified in advance.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Last week, the U.S. said it would cut back about 800 infantry brigade troops, a decision that affected Romania, Slovakia, Hungary and Bulgaria. Still, 1,000 U.S. soldiers will remain deployed in Romania.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The move instantly sparked pushback from Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), the chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.), the chair of the House Armed Services Committee, along with other lawmakers, arguing the decision was not coordinated with Congress and NATO.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Romanian State Secretary for Defense Sorin Moldovan said on Thursday that the U.S. should reverse the move, adding it is \u201cnot a good sign\u201d for the bilateral relationship between Washington and Bucharest. <\/p>\n

\u201cI believe this decision can be overturned \u2026 and it should be overturned,\u201d Moldovan told<\/a> Politico Europe. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to have a stronger bilateral talk with the U.S. to make the current administration understand that the threat is here on the eastern flank,\u201d the country\u2019s deputy defense minister said. <\/p>\n

The drawback of U.S. forces comes as NATO countries contend with recent airspace incursions by Russia as the war in Ukraine continues in its fourth year.<\/p>\n

Rutte downplayed the decision on Wednesday during his visit to Bucharest, saying<\/a> the move takes place \u201call the time\u201d and that NATO \u201ccan always scale up collectively, including in Romania.\u201d <\/p>\n

Moldovan, the deputy defense minister, concurred, but argued that the decision could help ignite Russia\u2019s \u201cpropaganda\u201d of the absence of unity within NATO. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf we speak on operational levels, nothing has changed since the withdrawal,\u201d Moldovan said on Thursday. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut the \u2026 political symbolism is a bit weird to have right now,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

The issue around informing Congress about the withdrawal of troops from Romania came up during Tuesday\u2019s Senate Armed Services Committee, where several GOP senators argued<\/a> that members of the panel were not briefed on the decision prior to it being reported by the news media. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think all of us would like to have more information on how the decision was made,\u201d Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth defended the U.S. government\u2019s decision to withdraw some troops from Romania as Bucharest ...<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1519,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globaltaalenthq.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1517"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globaltaalenthq.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globaltaalenthq.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globaltaalenthq.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globaltaalenthq.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1517"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/globaltaalenthq.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1517\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1518,"href":"https:\/\/globaltaalenthq.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1517\/revisions\/1518"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globaltaalenthq.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globaltaalenthq.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globaltaalenthq.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globaltaalenthq.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}