Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has signaled that some American service members stationed in Europe could be redeployed to the Western Hemisphere in the near future.
The move comes as the Trump administration continues to escalate its military campaign against drug cartels operating across Central and South America.
Hegseth made the remarks to reporters, tying the potential redeployment to recent U.S. military operations in Venezuela targeting former leader Nicolas Maduro.
“Well, we’re definitely expanding our presence and our footprint in Central and South America with partners, and because of the bold move the president made in Venezuela,” Hegseth told reporters.
The defense secretary highlighted growing U.S. partnerships with Ecuador, Honduras, Guatemala, and Panama as part of a broader regional security strategy taking shape.
Hegseth also emphasized that his role includes implementing a national security and defense strategy that “makes [it] very clear that we want more burden sharing” across NATO allies in Europe.
“And as we do that, a lot of…some of those capabilities are going to move elsewhere, either back home to the big, beautiful base that we’re going to build that we announced a couple of days ago, or to a different posture in the Western Hemisphere as we get after these designated terrorist organizations,” he told reporters in Colorado Springs.
Hegseth delivered his remarks in Colorado Springs, Colorado, building on comments he made earlier in the week during his State of Force speech on Wednesday.
During that address, Hegseth called on state governors to compete for the chance to host a major new American military installation, framing it as a landmark national opportunity.
“We’re calling on every governor in the country and adjutant general, every tag across this great republic, to step up to the plate and bring us their best sales pitch,” Hegseth said on Wednesday.
The Pentagon is currently conducting a six-month review of U.S. military posture across Europe, aimed at gradually transferring more conventional defense responsibilities to NATO partners on the continent.
That review is scheduled to conclude in December, and its findings are expected to shape the scope and pace of any troop realignments going forward.
The United States currently does not maintain a large permanent military base in South America, though the Pentagon has been steadily expanding its regional presence since late last year.
U.S. special operations forces are engaged in training partner military units to support command and control operations in the region, though officials have indicated those forces are not conducting direct combat missions on the ground.
