Open letter: https://tinyurl.com/CloseBasesLetter
Press release: https://tinyurl.com/CloseBasesPress
Graphics: https://tinyurl.com/CloseBasesGraphics
Hashtag: #CloseBases
Letter: Closing Military Bases Overseas
Will Save Billions and Improve National Security
April 16, 2025
Dear President Donald J. Trump,
For many years, you have rightly questioned the value of U.S. military bases abroad. “What are we getting out of this?” you asked in 2016 about the billions of dollars taxpayers spend on bases in places such as Germany and South Korea. The U.S. operates more than 750 bases around the world costing around $66 billion annually. It is time to reevaluate the need and effectiveness of this strategy. The military’s last available study found at least 19–22% excess base capacity worldwide, imposing billions in unnecessary costs.
The undersigned group of military analysts, veterans, scholars, and other experts from across the political spectrum agree that your administration has an unprecedented opportunity to close unnecessary, wasteful military bases overseas and save billions of dollars while strengthening national security in the process.
Many of the more than 750 U.S. bases abroad should have closed decades ago. Every member of the military stationed abroad costs tens of thousands of dollars more, on average, than stationing the same person on a domestic base. The transportation and shipping costs of moving troops, family members, and supplies to bases overseas, alone, are enormous.
Now imagine the billions we wastefully spend every year maintaining entire “America Towns” overseas–complete with housing, hospitals, schools, shopping malls, movie theaters, and much more. Large amounts of the money spent on bases abroad, including from the paychecks of military personnel, end up supporting host nation economies rather than the U.S. economy.
Significantly reducing the U.S. global footprint would bring home thousands of personnel and family members who would contribute to the domestic economy rather than foreign ones. Domestic bases should have plenty of capacity to receive troops: the Army and Air Force have both previously estimated having around 20% excess capacity at home.
As you know, past administrations have saved billions of taxpayer dollars by closing overseas bases. Your first administration closed bases in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria. Presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush, among others, closed hundreds of unnecessary bases in Europe and Asia.
Following your priorities, this letter’s signatories agree that there are at least four major additional reasons, beyond costs alone, to close overseas bases and improve national security in the process:
1. Overseas bases can entangle the U.S. in unnecessary and costly foreign wars. Closing bases overseas will help you keep your promise that, "I'm not going to start wars, I'm going to stop wars." Bases abroad become a target for foreign adversaries and risk getting the country into unnecessary wars. Bases dotting the globe also make war look like an easy solution for those in the Military Industrial Complex who, as you have said, “want to go to war all the time.” Closing bases abroad will allow you to bring troops home and reposition our military in locations that are actually essential to U.S. interests.
2. Overseas bases can increase military tension and cause blowback. Rather than deterring adversaries, U.S. bases can exacerbate regional tensions, as in Eastern Europe and the Pacific, leading to greater military spending and aggression. In the Middle East in particular, U.S. bases and troops have become focal points for violent threats, radicalization, and anti-American propaganda. Bases near Muslim holy sites in Saudi Arabia (where there are still U.S. bases) were a major recruiting tool for al-Qaeda.
3. Closing overseas bases will help “stop war profiteering” and “clean up… the Military Industrial Complex.” You have rightly said that you will “carry out a much needed clean up of the Military Industrial Complex to stop the war profiteering and to always put America first.” Maintaining unnecessary bases abroad enriches parts of the military industrial complex that are profiting off building and operating excess infrastructure abroad.
4. Overseas bases are increasingly unnecessary thanks to technological advancements. Because of advances in air and sealift and other military technology, the U.S. could retain the ability to deploy rapid response forces to any part of the globe with far fewer overseas bases. The development of extremely accurate intermediate- and long-range ballistic missiles also makes overseas bases vulnerable to attacks that are very difficult to defend against.
Beyond overseas bases, there are also many wasteful and unnecessary domestic bases that should be closed. While you begin the process of closing bases abroad, we encourage you to call on Congress to implement a long overdue Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) process, in which an independent commission helps select a list of bases to be realigned or closed in consultation with affected communities.
Given your administration’s commitment to cutting waste and maximizing efficiency, you should direct the Pentagon to close wasteful, unnecessary bases abroad. Doing so could save billions of dollars annually while improving the security of the United States.
Sincerely,
Organizations
American Friends Service Committee
Campaign for Peace, Disarmament and Common Security
CODEPINK
Council for a Livable World
Houston Peace and Justice Center
National Priorities Project at the Institute for Policy Studies
National Taxpayers Union
Peace Action
Prutehi Guåhan [Guam]
Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft
RootsAction
Taxpayers for Common Sense
Veterans For Peace
War Prevention Initiative
Women Cross DMZ
Women for Genuine Security
World BEYOND War
Individuals
Ann Wright, Colonel, US Army (Ret.), Veterans For Peace
Catherine Lutz , Professor, Brown University
Coleen Rowley, Retired FBI agent, Eisenhower Media Network
C. Douglas Lummis, Discharged US Marine Corps as Captain; author, War is Hell
David Swanson, Author, Activist, World BEYOND War
David Vine, PhD, Author, Base Nation: How U.S. Military Bases Abroad Harm America and the World
Elaine Scarry, Cabot Professor of Aesthetics and General Theory of Value, Harvard University
George Friday, National Organizer, United for Peace and Justice
Isa Arriola, Chair, Our Common Wealth 670
Jon Mitchell, Okinawa Times
Joseph Gerson, Executive Director, Campaign for Peace, Disarmament and Common Security
Karen Kwiatkowski, Lt Colonel, US Air Force (Ret.), Eisenhower Media Network
Lawrence B. Wilkerson, Colonel, US Army (Ret.), Eisenhower Media Network
Mark Selden, Emeritus Professor of History, Binghamton University
Matthew Hoh, Fellow, Eisenhower Media Network
Miriam Pemberton, Associate Fellow, Institute for Policy Studies
Norma Field, Ingersoll Distinguished Service Professor emerita, University of Chicago
Pat Elder, Director, Military Poisons
Pete Doktor, co-founder, Hawai`i Okinawa Alliance
Peter Kuznick, Professor/Director, Nuclear Studies Institute, American University
Satoko Oka Norimatsu, Director, Peace Philosophy Centre
Steve Rabson, US Army veteran, Brown University
Terry Lowman, Unitarian Universalists for a Just Economic Community
Tiara Naputi, Associate Professor, University of California Irvine
William J. Astore, Lt Colonel, US Air Force (Ret.), Bracing Views
cc: Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth
National Security Advisor Mike Waltz
Sen. Roger Wicker, Chair, Senate Committee on Armed Services
Sen. Jack Reed, Ranking Member, Senate Committee on Armed Services Committee
Rep. Mike Rogers, Chair, House Committee on Armed Services
Rep. Adam Smith, Ranking Member, House Committee on Armed Services
Sen. Jim Risch, Chair, Senate Committee on Foreign Relations
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, Ranking Member, Senate Committee on Foreign Relations
Rep. Brian Mast, Chair, House Committee on Foreign Affairs
Rep. Gregory Meeks, Ranking Member, House Committee on Foreign Affairs
Sen. Susan Collins, Chair, Senate Committee on Appropriations
Sen. Patty Murray, Vice-Chair, Senate Committee on Appropriations
Rep. Tom Cole, Chair, House Committee on Appropriations
Rep. Rosa DeLauro, Ranking Member, House Committee on Appropriations
LIST OF COUNTRIES HOSTING U.S. BASES ABROAD
ARUBA (Netherlands)
ASCENSION ISLAND (UK)
AUSTRALIA
BAHAMAS
BAHRAIN
BELGIUM
BOTSWANA
BULGARIA
BURKINA FASO
CAMEROON
CANADA
CHAD
CHILE
COLOMBIA
COSTA RICA
CUBA (Guantánamo Bay)
CURAÇAO (Netherlands)
CYPRUS
DENMARK(?)
DIEGO GARCIA (Mauritius)
DJIBOUTI
EGYPT
EL SALVADOR
ESTONIA
FINLAND(?)
GABON
GEORGIA
GERMANY
GHANA
GREECE
GREENLAND (Denmark)
HONDURAS
HUNGARY
ICELAND
IRAQ
IRELAND
ISRAEL
ITALY
JAPAN
JORDAN
KENYA
KOREA, REPUBLIC OF
KOSOVO
KUWAIT
LATVIA
LITHUANIA
LUXEMBOURG
MALI
MARSHALL ISLANDS
NETHERLANDS
NORWAY
OMAN
PALAU
PANAMA
PAPUA NEW GUINEA
PERU
PHILIPPINES
POLAND
PORTUGAL
QATAR
ROMANIA
SAUDI ARABIA
SENEGAL
SINGAPORE
SLOVAKIA
SOMALIA
SPAIN
SURINAME
SWEDEN(?)
SYRIA
TAIWAN(?)
THAILAND
TURKEY
UGANDA
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
UNITED KINGDOM
Attachment:
Closing Bases Overseas Save Billions Improve Security 2025.pdf
Description: Adobe PDF document
Attachment:
Press Release Letter to Trump Close Overseas Bases 2025.pdf
Description: Adobe PDF document