Five lessons from Merz’s visit to Trump

Chancellor in Washington

Five lessons from Merz’s visit to Trump

As deep as the gap in transatlantic relations is, Merz and Trump still get along well personally. But there was a delicate situation in the Oval Office that could still have an impact.

A firm handshake, a pat on the knee and lots of warm words. Despite all the substantive differences and distortions that exist in the relationship between Europe and the USA, from tariffs to Greenland to Ukraine – US President Donald Trump and Federal Chancellor Friedrich Merz still get along quite well. This is one of the findings from the three and a half hours that the Chancellor spent in the White House on Tuesday. However, his third visit to the USA as Chancellor did not go so smoothly. Five lessons learned from a total of 22 hours in Washington.

A “very successful man”, an “excellent leader” who is doing a “great job” – as he did during his inaugural visit in June last year, Trump flattered the Chancellor. And he said what he finds particularly good about him: that he is “pretty much the opposite” of his predecessor Angela Merkel (CDU), with whom Trump had to deal in his first term in office. Germany was Trump’s favorite opponent at the time because it obtained cheap Russian gas via the Nord Stream pipeline, did not want to spend enough on the military and allowed hundreds of thousands of refugees into the country. Things are different now with Merz, he says.

The Chancellor appears to be establishing himself as one of Trump’s four favorite Europeans – alongside Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Finnish President Alexander Stubb and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

Trump finds the German stance on the Iran war “great” and has refrained from calling for participation in the military campaign. “We’re not asking them to send ground troops or do anything like that.” After the meeting in the Oval Office, Merz said that no requests for military aid had been expressed from either Israel or the United States.

The Chancellor had already made it clear before the trip that military participation was out of the question for him. Although he had avoided criticism of the attack before his trip, he also did not clearly stand behind it and point out the risks. Trump’s understanding of the German attitude was not necessarily to be expected.

However, Trump launched harsh attacks against Great Britain and Spain. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer initially refused to allow him to use a military base. It wasn’t until Sunday evening that he gave in. Trump called it “shocking.”