The German “outdoor chancellor” introduces himself in the White House – Diepresse.com
Friedrich Merz routinely completed his debut in the White House. There was no scandal. Trump preferred to escalate the argument with Elon Musk.
Vienna/Washington. Before the 17-hour flying visit in Washington Friedrich Merz Serenity as a motto for his first meeting with Donald Trump in the White House. After the midnight arrival in the US capital, the serenity was quickly over on Thursday night at least for the time being. Because the White House had turned the program upside down at short notice: first greeting and small talk with a question and answer session in the Oval Office and then only the work dinner.
The German delegation had prepared to warm up with lunch and to clear out differences and any reservations in trade policy or in terms of freedom of expression. Now the schedule resembled the visits Wolodomyr Selenskijs and Cyril Ramaphosas, which had gone out of hand.
But Trump and his team had not prepared an unpleasant surprise for the German Chancellor. On the contrary: it was not only a scandal in front of the cameras. The US President described Merz as a « friend », spread roses for his good English.
The German cleverly threaded the European points of view in Ukraine into conversation: He pointed out Trump on the important role of the United States to move the Russian side at the end of the war. « He is the key person in the world, » said Merz about Trump. A delicate question of an earlier statement by the US President that the war was like a dispute among children, he deviated-in order to determine in front of the cameras that the Russian army alone would attack regularly and deliberately civil goals.
