First Sanchez, then Meloni and now Friedrich Merz. Relations between Donald Trump and European leaders have seen better times. The words spoken by the German Chancellor on the crisis in the Middle East infuriated the head of the White House. Who responded in kind.
Merz: “An entire nation humiliated by the United States”
“The Iranians are stronger than expected and the Americans don’t have a really convincing strategy even in the negotiations,” Merz said the day before yesterday, speaking at a school in Marsberg. So he immediately increased the dose. “The problem with conflicts like this is always: You don’t just have to get into it, you also have to get out of it. We saw it very painfully in Afghanistan, for 20 years. We saw it in Iraq.”
The Americans “entered this war without any strategy,” Merz explained, stressing that ending the war is now very difficult, “especially because the Iranians are evidently skilled negotiators, or rather, very skilled at not negotiating.” And so, he added, “an entire nation is humiliated by the Iranian leadership.” The current situation, the chancellor concluded, is “rather complicated” and “is costing us a lot of money”.
Trump’s response: “He doesn’t know what he’s talking about”
Words that provoked a harsh reaction from the president of the United States. “The German Chancellor, Friedrich Merz, thinks it is right for Iran to have a nuclear weapon,” Trump wrote in Truth. “He doesn’t know what he’s talking about! If Iran had a nuclear weapon, the whole world would be held hostage. I’m doing something with Iran, right now, that other nations or presidents should have done a long time ago. No wonder Germany is doing so badly, both economically and otherwise!”
The tense relations between European leaders and Trump
And so relations between Berlin and Washington also need to be mended. For those who spin the threads of working diplomacy, there is plenty of it. The obvious reason is that the head of the White House has not been generous with sweet words for European leaders. A couple of months ago he defined Spain as a “terrible” ally after Prime Minister Sanchez’s decision to deny US fighter jets the use of Spanish military bases. Since then, relations between Washington and Madrid have been at an all-time low, so much so that according to rumors the United States is plotting to exclude Spain from NATO.
Trump recently also had a spat with Prime Minister Meloni after the latter had defined the tycoon’s criticism of Pope Leo XIV as “unacceptable”. In recent months, the most powerful man on earth has also targeted British leader Keir Starmer, saying that he is “not Churchill” and that the United Kingdom is not the “best” ally of the United States. Not to mention the attacks aimed at Macron who, to name just one, “is still recovering from the punch his wife gave him”.
European prime ministers begin to “rebel” against the White House
In short, the tycoon doesn’t like European leaders much, but perhaps the opposite is also true. Commenting on the clash between Merz and Trump, the New York Times highlights that the consequences of the war in Iran “have made it more difficult for foreign leaders to stick to established strategies to curry favor with him. They increasingly find themselves having to choose between pleasing the president or their own voters, and the choice does not fall on Trump.”
Merz’s version: “Relations are good”
Meanwhile, at a press conference in Berlin, the German chancellor assured: “From my point of view, the personal relationship between the American president and me remains as good as before.” Merz also gave an interview to the German magazine Der Spiegel. When asked why he did not contradict the head of the White House more explicitly, he replied: “I explained to Donald Trump why we believe that war with Iran is wrong. Nonetheless, I try to maintain a good personal relationship with the American president. So far I have succeeded.”