Trump’s war of words with Friedrich Merz takes toll on US-German relationship

President Trump has repeatedly attacked German Chancellor Friedrich Merz for comments he made about the U.S. role in the Iran war, targeting a leader who has worked hard to be in the president’s good graces and a country considered to be one of the U.S.’s strongest allies.

​The comments escalate Trump’s attacks on European nations that have not volunteered to back the U.S. in the conflict, which is unpopular in Europe and has taken a heavy economic toll on Germany and other countries by driving up energy costs.

The war itself is dragging on Trump’s popularity, while creating a conundrum for Republicans in a midterm election year by exacerbating voter concerns about the economy.

Merz had cultivated a positive relationship before this past week’s turn, and experts said he likely didn’t mean to cause a spat that has appeared to weaken any ties he has — or hopes to have — with the U.S. leader by speaking of the U.S. being “humiliated” by Iran.

“I think Merz let his guard down by making those comments in a supposedly private setting at an already extremely tense moment in transatlantic relations, especially over the conflict,” said Jörn Fleck, senior director with the Europe Center at the Atlantic Council.

“I think he undercut a lot of progress he had made, personally, in stabilizing the relationship with President Trump and the relationship between the United States and Germany more broadly,” he added.

​It is not surprising that Trump was annoyed by Merz’s comments to a group of students in Germany. Merz essentially suggested that Iran was defeating the Trump administration at the negotiating table.

“The Iranians are obviously very skilled at negotiating, or rather, very skillful at not negotiating, letting the Americans travel to Islamabad ​and then leave again without any result,” Merz said during a talk to students in the German town of Marsberg, Reuters reported.  

​“An entire nation is being humiliated by the Iranian leadership, especially by these so-called Revolutionary Guards. And so, I hope that this ends as quickly as possible,” he added.

Those last comments almost certainly reflect the views of many political leaders not only in Germany, but in France, Italy and Great Britain given the cost the war has had on Europe. That continent depends more than the U.S. on oil transported through the Strait of Hormuz.

Fleck noted........

© The Hill