Over the past week, President Donald Trump has had to deal with protests following the death of George Floyd due to police brutality. After the past several days of protests have occurred, Trump has ordered the National Guard to start withdrawing from Washington DC.
CNN reports that Trump revealed the news via Twitter, saying that he has called for the National Guard to withdraw from Washington DC. Around 5,000 troops have been deployed to patrol the capital. Although Trump did not specify whether all the National Guard forces should start withdrawing, the decision was widely debated by officials within the administration and criticized by many. “They will be going home, but can quickly return, if needed. Far fewer protesters showed up last night than anticipated!” tweeted Trump.
Ryan McCarthy, Secretary of the Army confirmed the order telling the out-of-state National Guard soldiers to start withdrawing at 5:00 p.m. in the afternoon local time. McCarthy explained that the Pentagon was not in favor of invoking the Insurrection Act to disperse the protests, but noted that the move was very much discussed within the White House. McCarthy noted that they did all they could do not to reach to that extent.
Last week, the mayor of DC Muriel Bowser criticized the use of National Guard troops by Trump. Bowser explained that deploying the troops would only make the situation worse. However, Trump attacked Bowser on Twitter saying that she was trying to pick a fight with the National Guard and threatened to have a different group come in and disperse the protests if she did not back down or treat the National Guard soldiers well.
This is not the only withdrawal Trump has made recently. The New York Times reports that there is some tension between the president and German chancellor Angela Merkel as of late. Merkel revealed that she would not be attending the G7 summit, explaining her concerns about the coronavirus pandemic. However, Trump assured her that everything was fine and proceeded to rant to her about his frustrations towards the G7, NATO, and the WHO. Trump continued to push that the coronavirus was China’s fault.
The following week after they spoke on the phone, it appears that 9,500 American soldiers are to withdraw from Germany within the next three months. Whether or not these instances are related remains to be seen, but it suggests the possible breaking of trust between the two countries.