Merz visits Trump | Merz's visit to Washington turns into a failure

Friedrich Merz's inaugural visit to the United States lasted seventeen hours. During their joint appearance before members of the press in the Oval Office of the White House on Thursday, host Donald Trump spoke for "what felt like 95 percent" of the time, as the Deutschlandfunk correspondent reported on Friday morning. But the German head of government was at least able to express his desire for more support from the US president to end the war in Ukraine .

He made a strange comparison: 81 years ago, on June 6, 1944, the Western Allies, and thus the Americans, had made a significant contribution to the defeat of the Hitler regime with their landing in Normandy , the Chancellor said.

Trump then briefly irritated the audience with the joke that it hadn't been "a good day for you." Merz countered: Yes, the day had been "gratifying," because it had been followed by "the liberation of my country from the Nazi dictatorship." And then the Chancellor said what he had actually wanted to say: Let's do this now, together: liberate Europe from war!

At least Merz wasn't vilified in front of the world like Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was a few months ago. Instead, they exchanged noncommittal expressions of friendship, and Merz brought the president a golf club and a facsimile of the birth certificate of Trump's grandfather, Friedrich, from the Palatinate region, as a gift.

After the meeting with Trump, the Chancellor expressed his satisfaction. "Today we laid the foundation for very good personal, but also politically productive, discussions," the CDU leader told ARD. Meanwhile, the US media was almost exclusively interested in the simultaneously escalating feud between Trump and his former government advisor, Elon Musk.

The fact that the German emerged unscathed from the appearance with Trump, his vice president, J.D. Vance, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, beyond the occasional intrusive patting, was likely his greatest success. Merz had otherwise been forced to listen to lectures on US domestic policy. At a business event in Berlin on Friday, Merz admitted: "That wasn't a press conference, it was a good show in the Oval Office." At the subsequent dinner, the speaking time was reportedly more evenly distributed, and Trump also listened and asked questions.

During his public appearance, Trump praised Merz as a "respected" and "good man" and promised, "We will have a great relationship with your country." The US President also acknowledged the fact "that you are now spending more money on defense—quite a lot more." He said this was "a positive thing." The Chancellor now hopes to become one of, if not the most important, contacts for the US President in Europe. Previously, these contacts were French President Emmanuel Macron and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

Given that Vice President J.D. Vance, who had primarily called for an end to the alleged restrictions on the democratic freedoms of right-wing voters at the Munich Security Conference in February, was present, Merz had been prepared for further accusations of this kind. Immediately before his meeting with Trump, he had announced that he would make his opinion "very clear" in this case. However, the topic was not raised either at the press conference or at the luncheon. In a CNN interview, Merz concluded that people in the US are now somewhat clearer about "what kind of party this so-called Alternative for Germany really is."

His appeal, however, with regard to Ukraine and the glorious times of the victory over the Wehrmacht, which was falsely attributed to the US, was in vain. Trump compared Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine to "little children" fighting. "Sometimes it's better to let them fight for a while and then separate them," the president stated. In any case, he does not want to exert more pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin at the moment, nor does he want to impose further sanctions.

US tariffs burden German industrial production

Meanwhile, the talks in the tariff dispute between the US and the EU, the issue currently causing the most conflict between Germany and the United States, yielded no results. There is still time until July 9 to prevent US tariffs of 50 percent on goods from the EU. The EU Commission is conducting negotiations with the US. A concrete agreement was reached to improve German-American trade – it would remain the only one during Merz's visit: two representatives from the White House and the Chancellery will now focus on better coordination of economic relations. "The luncheon was worth its weight in gold for this," the Chancellor said after the meeting.

Meanwhile, the escalating dispute over export tariffs is already having serious repercussions for the German economy. The outlook remains bleak – the Bundesbank has also lowered its economic forecast and expects a third consecutive year of no growth.

In April, Germany's exporters suffered a significant setback, especially in business with their most important trading partner, the United States, according to preliminary figures from the Federal Statistical Office on Friday: Although most German exports went to the United States in the month in which US President Donald Trump announced his XXL tariff package, they fell to 13 billion euros, the lowest level since October 2024. Compared to the same month last year, there was even a decline of 6.3 percent, adjusted for calendar and seasonal effects.

"The effects of US trade policy have now reached us. Exports to the US are collapsing," said Dirk Jandura, President of the German Federal Association of Wholesale, Foreign Trade, and Services (BGA). "The EU must urgently find solutions with our most important trading partner through constructive discussions. It won't work without the US." Just a few days ago, however, Washington had toughened its tone again: Trump ordered a doubling of tariffs on steel and aluminum imports into the US from 25 to 50 percent.

Sebastian Dullien, scientific director of the Institute for Macroeconomics and Business Cycle Research at the Hans Böckler Foundation, sees no reason for excessive concern about the decline in exports and production: "Overall, the indicators suggest that the situation in industry is stabilizing and we could be close to a turning point for the better."

However, US trade policy could have a significant impact on the German labor market. The head of the Federal Employment Agency, Andrea Nahles, told the Süddeutsche Zeitung that she expects 90,000 jobs to be lost within a year due to the US tariffs. She cites a study by the Institute for Employment Research (IAB) that examined the effect of a 25 percent tariff rate. with agencies