{"id":10371,"date":"2026-05-05T02:49:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T02:49:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/10371\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T02:49:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T02:49:08","slug":"merzs-strategy-for-dealing-with-trumps-anger-tell-him-hes-right-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/10371\/","title":{"rendered":"Merz\u2019s strategy for dealing with Trump\u2019s anger: Tell him he\u2019s right \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>German government spokesperson Stefan Kornelius batted off suggestions that Merz might have to jet off to Washington to cool the latest tensions with Trump, saying that the two were next scheduled to meet at a summit of the G7 leading economies in France, which won\u2019t take place until June 15-17.<\/p>\n<p>Until then, Vice-Chancellor Lars Klingbeil offered reassurances that Merz was in \u201cconstant communication\u201d with Trump to avoid a further escalation. Kornelius, however, could not offer specific information on any planned telephone calls. <\/p>\n<p>Even though politicians from Merz\u2019s coalition partner, the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD), are now frustratedly arguing the time has come to unleash the full might of the EU\u2019s trade arsenal against the U.S. over Trump\u2019s threats, Merz is seeking to salvage the relationship with a softly-softly approach. <\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/GettyImages-2274016157-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-8378975\"  \/>German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius (center), who has cast the U.S. withdrawal as a signal for Europe to step up and cover more of its own NATO responsibilities, at an exhibition of German military equipment near Munster on May 4, 2026. | Morris MacMatzen\/Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>For the chancellor, the tactical logic is inescapable: direct confrontation risks backfiring, as recent days have shown. So, he\u2019s performing a screeching U-turn and dialing up the placatory diplomacy to be in a position to cajole the president, as far as he possibly can.   <\/p>\n<p>\u2018Not giving up\u2019<\/p>\n<p>After the U.S. president vowed to raise levies on European cars and trucks to 25 percent this week in response to what he said is Europe\u2019s foot-dragging on implementation of the Turnberry trade agreement struck between the EU and U.S. last summer, Merz seemed to have a great deal of understanding for Trump\u2019s position.<\/p>\n<p>In fact, he flipped the blame onto the EU. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"German government spokesperson Stefan Kornelius batted off suggestions that Merz might have to jet off to Washington to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10372,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[5898,419,5354,9461,420,9462,502,479,4259,60,393,5,616,253,468,9463,6569,8876,692,1831,626,8343,629,4940,481,409,2379],"class_list":{"0":"post-10371","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-germany","8":"tag-americas","9":"tag-boris-pistorius","10":"tag-cars","11":"tag-communications","12":"tag-defense","13":"tag-democratic-party","14":"tag-diplomacy","15":"tag-donald-trump","16":"tag-exports","17":"tag-france","18":"tag-friedrich-merz","19":"tag-germany","20":"tag-industry","21":"tag-iran","22":"tag-johann-wadephul","23":"tag-markus-tons","24":"tag-missiles","25":"tag-pentagon","26":"tag-rights","27":"tag-russia","28":"tag-security","29":"tag-tariffs","30":"tag-trade","31":"tag-trade-agreements","32":"tag-united-states","33":"tag-war","34":"tag-war-in-iran"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10371"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10371\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}