Donald Trump said he is cutting the number of American troops in Germany by half because Berlin is “delinquent” in its contributions to NATO and treats the US “badly” on trade.

The US president told reporters there are 52,000 US soldiers stationed in Germany: “It’s a tremendous cost to the United States. So we’re removing a number down to, we"re putting the number down to 25,000 soldiers”.

There are only between 34,000 and 35,000 US soldiers permanently stationed in Germany, according to the Pentagon, although rotation of units mean the overall number can temporarily top 50,000.

US troops have been stationed in the geopolitically vital country since the end of World War II, forming the bulk of the Nato alliance’s conventional defence against the Soviet Union during the Cold War.