German Chancellor Friedrich Merz successfully navigated a 40-minute meeting with Donald Trump in the Oval Office without falling victim to the public humiliation the American president has doled out to other leaders — even though both Germany and Europe are two of Trump’s perpetual irritants.
Merz heeded the advice from a number of European leaders that he should let Trump do most of the talking, and when he did talk, to praise the president. Merz faded into the background for much of the meeting, breaking his silence to say that Germany owes "the Americans a lot.”
Merz’s meeting with Trump was a high-risk move to try to lobby the president on several existential issues for the European Union: the brewing transatlantic trade conflict, the continent’s security architecture and the upcoming NATO summit and how to continue support for Ukraine.
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