With only a few months left in office, US President Joe Biden is going on a farewell tour. Having postponed his original visit because of Hurricane Milton, he was in Germany last week.
Biden was the first US president since George H. W. Bush to be awarded the Federal Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who presented the award to Biden on Friday, called the US president a "beacon of democracy," commending his "decades-long dedication to the trans-Atlantic alliance," his "outstanding political leadership in Europe's most dangerous moment" and his "lasting moral example of service, sincerity and decency."
The US-Europe relationship, and particularly the US-Germany relationship, has been near and dear to Biden. The end of his presidency will mark the end of an era. But will he be the last trans-Atlantic president?
"I think that's a fair assessment," Michelle Egan, a professor at American University in Washington and an expert on US-European relations, told DW. "That's probably because of his long engagement through NATO, through the Munich Security Conference, through being on the [US Senate] Foreign Relations Committee and knowing a lot of leaders in Europe prior to........