Trump Moves to Cut NATO Bombers, Submarines, and Warships in Major Win for Russia

US President Donald Trump speaks with Russian President Vladimir Putin at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska, on August 15, 2025. Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

Since returning to office, Trump has repeatedly delivered gifts to Vladimir Putin by attacking NATO allies, pressuring Ukraine to surrender, undermining sanctions, issuing waivers for Russian oil exports, helping bring Russia back from pariah status, and steadily normalizing relations with Moscow — advancing Putin’s interests as he has done over the past decade.

And the attacks on NATO play directly into one of the Kremlin’s oldest strategic goals. Since the Cold War, Soviet and Russian intelligence services have worked to fracture, undermine, and ultimately dismantle NATO by pushing the United States out of Europe, sowing division among allied governments, and breaking the transatlantic alliance that constrained Moscow’s bloody imperial ambitions. For decades, they ran influence operations, propaganda campaigns, espionage networks, political warfare, and active measures designed to weaken Western unity from within.

Now Trump is preparing to hand the Kremlin one of its biggest geopolitical victories yet — and arguably the most consequential of all.

According to new Reuters reporting, U.S. officials are preparing to sharply reduce the military capabilities the U.S. makes available to NATO during a major crisis or war. The cuts would affect strategic bombers, fighter jets, destroyers, submarines, drones, and aerial refueling aircraft — some of the most important military assets underpinning NATO deterrence in Europe.

The new reporting follows a Reuters exclusive from last week revealing that U.S. officials planned to formally inform NATO allies that Washington would significantly scale back America’s commitments under the alliance’s NATO Force Model, the framework governing what military assets member states make available during wartime or major crises. This comes as the alliance is already under “unprecedented strain,” with growing fears across Europe that the U.S. could eventually reduce its commitments even further or withdraw more broadly from Europe altogether.

And now Politico and Germany’s Der Spiegel are reporting that Pentagon officials have briefed NATO allies behind closed doors in Brussels on how the drawdown would begin taking shape. NATO diplomats told the outlets that some military capabilities could disappear entirely, while others may be cut by half or more as the U.S. steadily scales back its role in NATO operations.

These capabilities form the backbone of NATO’s military deterrence in Europe. Their purpose is not simply to fight wars, but to prevent them by making clear to Moscow that any attack on a NATO member would trigger an immediate and overwhelming military response.

The latest developments follow earlier announcements to withdraw thousands of U.S. troops from Europe, while Trump has repeatedly attacked NATO allies, clashed with European governments, openly questioned America’s obligations under the alliance, and floated withdrawing from NATO altogether during disputes surrounding the Iran war and the Strait of Hormuz.

After failing to pressure Ukraine into surrender over the past year, Trump is now moving to dismantle the broader Western deterrence system that has constrained Russia for decades. And the timing could hardly be more dangerous.

Just this past weekend, Russia launched one of its largest aerial assaults of the war against Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities, firing more than 90 missiles and hundreds of drones, including another Oreshnik intermediate-range ballistic missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead. The attacks struck residential buildings, bomb shelters, shopping centers, schools, markets, government buildings, and civilian infrastructure across the country, killing and injuring Ukrainians as Russia once again terrorizes cities across the country in its genocidal war.

At the same time, Russia continues expanding missile production, militarizing its economy, and preparing for long-term confrontation with the West. All while Russian officials celebrated the destruction they inflicted on Kyiv. Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev praised the assault and declared that Russia must continue striking Ukraine “with even greater force,” while also threatening European diplomats after the EU announced it would maintain its diplomatic presence in Kyiv despite Russian warnings. Responding on social media, Medvedev sneered that Europe apparently “has diplomats to spare and needs to trim the headcount.”

In other words, while Moscow openly threatens European officials, escalates genocidal attacks against Ukrainians, and expands its aggression across Europe, the U.S. is simultaneously reducing the military capabilities meant to deter it.

And in reality, Russia’s war has never been confined to Ukraine.

Over the past several years, Moscow has dramatically escalated its shadow war against Europe through sabotage operations, cyberattacks, assassinations, election attacks, disinformation operations, arson attacks, and increasingly aggressive electronic warfare operations. Just days ago, an RAF aircraft carrying British Defense Secretary John Healey had its GPS signal jammed for hours while flying near Russian territory after visiting British troops in Estonia. Russian aircraft have repeatedly carried out dangerous intercepts of NATO surveillance planes over the Black Sea, while Russian submarines continue probing critical undersea infrastructure and cables across the North Atlantic.

And these incidents are becoming increasingly common across Europe. Last year, while Putin was in China, a plane carrying European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was targeted by GPS jamming as it approached Bulgaria, forcing the pilots to land manually. Across the Baltic and Nordic regions, thousands of GPS interference incidents have disrupted civilian and military navigation systems as Russia increasingly treats NATO territory as an active battlefield.

At the same time, Moscow continues deepening military and intelligence cooperation with Iran, helping Tehran target U.S. interests in the Middle East, while Russia, Iran, China, and North Korea continue to align against the democratic world.

For decades, dismantling NATO and pushing the U.S. out of Europe have been core Kremlin strategic objectives. Now Trump is advancing those objectives from inside the alliance — and the Republican Party is allowing it to happen.

From threatening to abandon NATO and questioning America’s treaty obligations, to attacking allied governments, threatening invasion of Greenland and Canada, and scaling back U.S. military commitments abroad, Trump has spent his return to power systematically destroying America’s most important alliances while pushing the country deeper into isolation.

And Europe is paying attention. European governments understand that the U.S. is no longer behaving like a reliable ally, and many are quietly reassessing the future of the transatlantic partnership. What Republicans seem to forget is that European countries control critical bases, logistics hubs, intelligence infrastructure, and airspace that the U.S. relies on for military operations across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

Trump is increasingly doing Xi Jinping’s bidding as well, including reportedly reconsidering Congressionally approved military packages for Taiwan after returning from China. So as Russia and China work to overturn the global order, Trump and his cronies are dismantling the alliances that were built to stop them.