00:02New this morning, President Trump says he is sending thousands of additional U.S. troops to Poland.
00:08A sharp turn after last week's decision to cancel a deployment headed there.
00:13Last week, the Pentagon said a 4,200 soldier army brigade would not deploy to Poland,
00:19even though the unit had already trained for months and equipment was in place.
00:23Now, Trump says 5,000 troops will head to Poland.
00:27On Truth Social, the president said the decision was driven in part by the election of Poland's new president, Karol
00:33Norocki.
00:35The announcement also stands out because Trump and members of his administration
00:39have repeatedly discussed scaling back the American military presence in Europe.
00:44Speaking to reporters ahead of a NATO foreign ministers meeting in Sweden this morning,
00:48Secretary of State Marco Rubio downplayed the turnaround.
00:51Obviously, the United States continues to have global commitments that it needs to meet in terms of our force deployment,
00:56and that constantly requires us to re-examine where we put troops.
01:00This is not a punitive thing.
01:02It's just something that's ongoing, and it was pre-existing, all these recent reports and tensions and so forth.
01:08NATO Secretary General Mark Ruda welcomed the decision,
01:11while also repeating that Europe needs to continue taking on more of its own defense responsibilities.
01:17The trajectory we are on, which is a stronger Europe and a stronger NATO,
01:24making sure we will, over time, step by step, be less reliant on one ally only,
01:29as we have been for so long, which is the United States,
01:32so that also for them, they have the possibility and the option to pivot more towards other priorities,
01:40which are also in our interest, will continue.
01:42But of course, I very much welcome the announcement yesterday.
01:45Trump has also previously criticized U.S. military planning in Europe,
01:50calling it a lack of strategy, and said he planned to cut even more than 5,000 troops from the
01:55region.
01:56Meanwhile, the debate over American military commitments continues here at home.
02:00House Republicans Thursday delayed a vote on legislation that would require the president
02:05to pull U.S. forces out of the Iran conflict, pushing action on that measure until at least June.
02:12Tune in Palm
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