The Senate has confirmed 37 of President Trump's Article III judicial nominees since January 2025, the second-fewest confirmations through this point in any president's second term since Bill Clinton, according to Ballotpedia. The historical average is 50 confirmations through May 1 of a president's second year; Barack Obama led all recent presidents at that mark with 73.
European allies are bracing for President Trump to pull additional U.S. forces from the continent, following his announcement of a 5,000-troop withdrawal from Germany, Bloomberg Politics reports.
The move is less a departure from alliance norms than an acceleration of a presidential instinct — unilateral repositioning of forces without meaningful congressional input — that has quietly eroded legislative war powers for decades.
What's different now is the strategic context: Russia is actively at war in Europe, NATO's deterrence posture depends on credible forward presence, and the executive branch is treating troop deployments as a bilateral bargaining chip rather than a collective-security commitment.