Trump forced to set Hegseth straight after Poland troop deployment blunder

President Donald Trump has reversed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s plan to cancel deployment of 5,000 U.S. troops to a base in Poland, citing the election of a president aligned with the right-wing Law and Justice party last August.

Writing on Truth Social, Trump said he was “pleased to announce that the United States will be sending an additional 5,000 Troops to Poland” and added that he was doing so “based on the successful Election of the now President of Poland, Karol Nawrocki.”

But his announcement countermanded an earlier one from Hegseth’s Pentagon to hold back a planned rotation of the 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team of the 1st Cavalry Division for a nine-month stay at a U.S. base on Polish territory. That decision followed Hegseth’s order to withdraw 5,000 more U.S. personnel from bases in Germany to punish that country after German Chancellor Friedrich Merz publicly criticized the U.S. handling of the three-month-old war with Iran.

Hegseth’s surprise cancellation of the troop rotation had concerned American officials, including members of Congress, who had expressed surprise that the Trump administration would pull U.S. forces from Poland and groused about not being consulted on the decision beforehand.

Poland’s government has not criticized the war in Iran, and Warsaw has the highest defense budget in Europe as a percentage of GDP.

Democratic and Republican lawmakers criticized the reductions as sending the wrong signal both to allies and Russian President Vladimir Putin as he continues his assault on Ukraine in the 4-year-old war.

Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.), chair of the House Armed Services Committee, said his committee was “not happy” about the decision during a hearing with Army Secretary Dan Driscoll and acting Army Chief of Staff General Christopher LaNeve last week.

“We don’t know what’s going on here, but I just tell you we’re not happy with what’s being talked about, particularly since there’s been no statutory consultation with us,” he said.

Vice President J.D. Vance, a longtime skeptic of the U.S. presence in Europe and a critic of NATO, told reporters at the White House on Tuesday that the decision to not deploy the extra forces had been “a very small and very minor thing” while accusing European media of “overreacting.”

“We’ve not reduced the troop levels in Poland by 4,000 troops. What we did is that we delayed a troop deployment that was going to go to Poland. That’s not a reduction, that’s just a standard delay and rotation that sometimes happens in these situations,” he said.

Days later, Trump reportedly made the decision to overrule Hegseth and communicated his displeasure to the Pentagon boss in a phone call that was first reported by The Wall Street Journal. According to the Journal, Trump told Hegseth that America should not mistreat Warsaw considering it is a strong U.S. ally with close ties to the administration.

In a statement, White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly said Trump “appreciates all the secretary has done—and will continue to do—in executing the America First agenda within our military and prioritizing our warfighters like never before,” while Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said Trump and Hegseth “communicate constantly and are in lockstep regarding U.S. troop movements in Europe.”

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