German Chancellor Friedrich Merz avoided a feared public spat during his first meeting with American President Donald Trump, dodging the fate of some of his fellow leaders.
There had been tense anticipation in Berlin about Merz’s first visit to Washington, after Trump had used bilateral press conferences in the Oval Office to publicly confront the presidents of Ukraine and South Africa.
But the public portion of Merz’s meeting with Trump passed without major disruption, as the US president dominated the conversation, paying little attention to the chancellor.
When he did, the president repeatedly complimented the chancellor, praising Merz’s recent electoral success as well as his English, while throwing in a few digs at former Chancellor Angela Merkel, including criticism of her liberal migration policy.
Trump did not, however, venture into the more confrontational topic of Germany’s handling of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), as some in Berlin had feared.
A White House Official had said before the meeting that Trump would “likely” raise the matter, according to The New York Times. Officials from Trump’s administration, including Vice-President J.D. Vance, have repeatedly criticised the AfD’s outsider status in German politics as a sign of deteriorating freedom of speech.
“Surprisingly enough, we didn’t talk about that in any respect,” Merz said later in an interview with Fox News. “I think this is now behind us. This party is a special party. They are in parliament. They are the biggest opposition party. We deal with them, we do our work as a government, and we have our discussions in parliament, and that’s it.”
‘Let them fight’
On policy, Merz had come with a mission to nudge the president in the direction of taking tougher action against Russia for its war against Ukraine and to reduce tariffs imposed on EU countries.
Trump remained largely non-committal in the Oval Office, though he said that Europe and the US would “end up hopefully with a trade deal.” He suggested energy could be part of it, claiming credit for “stopping” the now-defunct Nord Stream 2 pipeline.
Merz, who brought along the original birth certificate of Trump’s German-born grandfather as a present, appeared largely deferential. He later called for stronger American engagement in ending Russia’s war, invoking historical analogies with tomorrow’s anniversary of D-Day.
Trump appeared to signal, however, that he was unwilling to impose tougher sanctions on Russia at the moment, as European leaders had hoped.
“I gave the analogy yesterday when I spoke to President Putin… sometimes you see two young children fighting like crazy… and you try and pull them apart – they don’t want to be pulled,” Trump said.
“Sometimes you’re better off letting them fight for a while and then pulling them apart.”
At the right moment, he could be “very, very, very tough” on both countries as it “takes two to tango”, Trump added.
Merz later told Fox News that he had asked Trump to put more pressure on Putin to end the war.
“It’s extremely complicated to bring the Russians to the table,” Merz said. “That’s the reason why I asked the president to do more on Russia and to put pressure on Russia.”
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This story has been updated.